Development of Combined Load Spectra for Offshore Structures Subjected to Wind, Wave, and Ice Loading

Fixed offshore wind turbines continue to be developed for high latitude areas where not only wind and wave loads need to be considered but also moving sea ice. Current rules and regulations for the design of fixed offshore structures in ice-covered waters do not adequately consider the effects of ice loading and its stochastic nature on the fatigue life of the structure. Ice crushing on such structures results in ice-induced vibrations, which can be represented by loading the structure using a variable-amplitude loading (VAL) sequence. Typical offshore load spectra are developed for wave and wind loading. Thus, a combined VAL spectrum is developed for wind, wave, and ice action. To this goal, numerical models are used to simulate the dynamic ice-, wind-, and wave-structure interaction. The stress time-history at an exemplarily selected critical point in an offshore wind energy monopile support structure is extracted from the model and translated into a VAL sequence, which can then be used as a loading sequence for the fatigue assessment or fatigue testing of welded joints of offshore wind turbine support structures. This study presents the approach to determine combined load spectra and standardized time series for wind, wave, and ice action.

Unified Wind Wave Growth and Spectrum Functions for All Water Depths: Field Observations and Model Results

Wind wave development is governed by the fetch- or duration-limited growth principle that is expressed as a pair of similarity functions relating the dimensionless elevation variance (wave energy) and spectral peak frequency to fetch or duration. Combining the pair of similarity funtions the fetch or duration variable can be removed to form a dimensionless function of elevation variance and spectral peak frequency, which is interepreated as the wave enegry evolution with wave age. The relationship is initially developed for quasi-neural stability and quasi-steady wind forcing conditions. Further analyses show that the same fetch, duration, and wave age similarity functions are applicable to unsteady wind forcing conditions, including rapidly accelerating and decelerating mountain gap wind episodes and tropical cyclone (TC) wind fields. Here it is shown that with the dimensionless frequency converted to dimensionless wavenumber using the surface wave dispersion relationship, the same similarity function is applicable in all water depths. Field data collected in shallow to deep waters and mild to TC wind conditions, and synthetic data generated by spectrum model computations are assembled to illustrate the applicability. For the simulation work, the finite-depth wind wave spectrum model and its shoaling function are formulated for variable spectral slopes. Given wind speed, wave age, and water depth, the measrued and spectrum-computed significant wave heights and the associated growth parameters are in good agreement in forcing conditions from mild to TC winds and in all depths from deep ocean to shallow lake.

High-density metals and arsenic in algae of storm emissions from the coastal area of the Severny island of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago

Purpose of the Study is to assess the potential hazard in terms of the content of high-density metals (HDMs) and arsenic (As) for the consumption of objects of the Arctic algal flora presented in storm emissions in places of probable disembarkation of a crew, the ship has come in a distress or a disaster in the water area of the northern seas of the Russian Federation.Materials and methods. The elemental composition of samples of the plants thrown by the wind-wave impact on the coastal area of the Severny island of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. Before making the analysis, thallus fragments were dried at 80° C to constant weight to determine their dry weight with an accuracy of 1 mg. The material mineralization was carried out using a microwave mineralizer according to the standard technique. The elementary analysis was performed using MGA-915M atomic spectrometer. The data obtained were compared with the maximum permissible levels established by the current regulatory documents. According to the results of measurements, series of decreasing concentrations of HDMs in algae samples were built according to the places of collection and species.Results and Discussion. It has been found that the lowest content of HDMs and arsenic in the wind-wave emissions of algae on the Severny Island in the Russkaya Gavan Bay of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago belongs to both Laminaria digitata and vegetative parts of the thallus of most of the other ejected algae. These plants can be used for food in extreme situations by the crews of a ship (an aircraft, etc.) who has come in a distress or a disaster.

Interne Modellvariabilität von Ensemblesimulationen des gekoppelten Wellen- und Atmosphärenmodells GCOAST

<p>Ziel dieser Studie (Wiese et al., 2020) ist, die Signifikanz des Einflusses des Wellenmodells auf das regionale Atmosphärenmodell und die interne Modellvariabilität sowohl des Atmosphärenmodells, als auch des gekoppelten Systems bestehend aus Wellen- und Atmosphärenmodell zu bestimmen. In einer vorhergehenden Studie wurde gezeigt, dass die Rauigkeit, die im Wellenmodell berechnet wird, größer ist, als die Rauigkeit, die im Atmosphärenmodell approximiert wird, was zu Unterschieden im Atmosphärenmodell führt (Wiese et al. 2019). Hier soll nun untersucht werden, ob diese Unterschiede im Atmosphärenmodell signifikant sind.  Dazu werden Ensemblesimulation mit einem Referenz Setup (das Atmosphärenmodell sendet den Wind an das Wellenmodell) und dem gekoppelten Setup (zusätzlich zum Windaustausch, sendet das Wellenmodell die Rauigkeitslänge über dem Meer zurück an das Atmosphärenmodell) durchgeführt. Bei der Analyse der internen Modellvariabilität zwischen beiden Ensembles zeigt sich, dass die interne Modellvariabilität im gekoppelten Ensemble gegenüber dem Referenzensemble reduziert ist. Dieser Effekt tritt während Extremereignissen am stärksten auf, ist aber auch bei einer generellen Analyse der internen Modellvariabilität über den gesamten Zeitraum sichtbar. Außerdem können die Effekte der Kopplung von der internen Modellvariabilität unterschieden werden, da die Effekte der Kopplung größer sind, als die interne Modellvariabilität. Diese Studie zeigt daher das Potential sowohl in operationellen Systemen als auch Systemen für Klimastudien die Unsicherheit zu reduzieren, wenn das Wellenmodell mit dem Atmosphärenmodell gekoppelt wird. Hinzu kommt, dass die Effekte der Kopplung klar von der internen Modellvariabilität unterschieden werden können, wodurch außerdem eine verbesserte Übereinstimmung des gekoppelten Systems gegenüber dem Referenzensemble mit Beobachtungsdaten erzielt werden kann. In einem nächsten Schritt soll nun zusätzlich der Ozean gekoppelt und die Auswirkungen auf das gesamte System untersucht werden.</p> <p> </p> <p>Literatur:</p> <p>Wiese A, Stanev E, Koch W, Behrens A, Geyer B and Staneva J (2019) The Impact of the Two-Way Coupling between Wind Wave and Atmospheric Models on the Lower Atmosphere over the North Sea. Atmosphere. 10(7):386. doi: 10.3390/atmos10070386</p> <p>Wiese A, Staneva J, Ho-Hagemann HTM, Grayek S, Koch W and Schrum C (2020) Internal Model Variability of Ensemble Simulations With a Regional Coupled Wave-Atmosphere Model GCOAST. Front. Mar. Sci. 7:596843. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2020.596843</p>

Development of Combined Load Spectra for Offshore Structures Subjected to Wind, Wave, and Ice Loading

Fixed offshore wind turbines continue to be developed for high latitude areas where not only wind and wave loads need to be considered, but also moving sea ice. Current rules and regulations for the design of fixed offshore structures in ice-covered waters do not adequately consider effects of ice loading and its stochastic nature on fatigue life of the structure. Ice crushing on such structures results in ice-induced vibrations, which can be represented by loading the structure using a variable-amplitude loading (VAL) sequence. Typical offshore load spectra are developed for wave and wind loading. Thus, a combined VAL spectrum is developed for wind, wave, and ice action. To this goal, numerical models are used to simulate the dynamic ice-, wind-, and wave-structure interaction. The stress time-history at an exemplarily selected critical point in an offshore wind energy monopile support structure is extracted from the model and translated into a VAL sequence, which can then be used as a loading sequence for the fatigue assessment or fatigue testing of welded joints of offshore wind turbine support structures. This study presents the approach to determine combined load spectra and standardized time series for wind, wave, and ice action.

Impacts of the Wave-Dependent Sea Spray Parameterizations on Air–Sea–Wave Coupled Modeling under an Idealized Tropical Cyclone

While sea spray can significantly impact air–sea heat fluxes, the effect of spray produced by the interaction of wind and waves is not explicitly addressed in current operational numerical models. In the present work, the thermal effects of the sea spray were investigated for an idealized tropical cyclone (TC) through the implementation of different sea spray models into a coupled air–sea–wave numerical system. Wave-Reynolds-dependent and wave-steepness-dependent sea spray models were applied to test the sensitivity of local wind, wave, and ocean fields of this TC system. Results show that while the sensible heat fluxes decreased by up to 231 W m−2 (364%) and 159 W m−2 (251%), the latent heat fluxes increased by up to 359 W m−2 (89%) and 263 W m−2 (76%) in the simulation period, respectively. This results in an increase of the total heat fluxes by up to 135 W m−2 (32%) and 123 W m−2 (30%), respectively. Based on different sea spray models, sea spray decreases the minimum sea level pressure by up to 7 hPa (0.7%) and 8 hPa (0.8%), the maximum wind speed increases by up to 6.1 m s−1 (20%) and 5.7 m s−1 (19%), the maximum significant wave height increases by up to 1.1 m (17%) and 1.6 m (25%), and the minimum sea surface temperature decreases by up to 0.2 °C (0.8%) and 0.15 °C (0.6%), respectively. As the spray has such significant impacts on atmospheric and oceanic environments, it needs to be included in TC forecasting models.