MS#05.1 Welded Details of Offshore Wind Support Structures - Improvements in Fabrication, Design and Verification Procedures

K. SCHÜRMANN¹, E. GHAFOORI²
¹ Ramboll Deutschland GmbH|² Institute for Steel Construction, Leibniz University Hannover

Structures, structural integrity, materials

Currently, the majority of offshore wind foundations consists of welded steel structures such as monopiles or jacket structures. As one of the main design drivers of these structures is usually the fatigue limit state (FLS) and hence the fatigue performance of the welded connections and details, this mini-symposium addresses presentations on the latest academic research and industrial developments for welded details. Focus should be on new results, whereby presentations including experimental lab test results or mock-up tests will be prioritized.

The presentations could either address recent manufacturing developments to for example enable the application of high-performance welding techniques. Addressing automatization topics to apply robot-welding to realistic structures and complex geometries or the application of adaptive manufacturing techniques to offshore wind are of major interest as well. In view of the increasing importance of lifetime extensions also developments and techniques addressing the repair of cracked welded details of offshore wind support structures can be presented.

In addition, recent developments on improved fatigue verification methodologies to consider measured weld geometries, profiled weld shapes, weld improvement or the impact of multi-axiality during the fatigue assessment of the welded details are highly welcomed.

No presentations shall be proposed which are merely summarizing results that have been presented in public before.