The effects of soil-structure interaction in the seismic design of wind turbine foundations by investigating the impact of cement on soil: A case study of Firuz-Bahram soil

Subject Areas : Soil-Structure Interaction

Masoud ZabihiSamani ¹ , Arwin Farhoud ² , seyed mostafa daryabari ³ , Zahra Esmaeili ⁴

1 -
2 -
3 -
4 -

Received: 2025-04-03 Accepted : 2025-04-26 Published : 2025-04-30

Keywords: Wind turbine, seismic analysis, soil-structure interaction, soil stabilization with cement, natural frequency,

Abstract :

In this paper, by presenting an applied model for simulating wind turbines with mat foundation and soil in an integrated manner, the effects of soil-structure interaction on the seismic behavior of wind turbines and the effect of soil stabilized with different percentages of cement have been studied. For this purpose, a new method for three-dimensional modelling of the rectangular cube foundation has been formulated and presented, assuming its rigid behavior. After importing the suggested model into the ABAQUS software, its adequacy and ability to reduce the time computation without decreasing the accuracy of the responses will be demonstrated. In this study, the effects of soil-structure interaction on the seismic response of 65-kW and 1-MW horizontal-axis wind turbine engines with conical steel towers have been investigated. The two proposed turbines with a mat foundation and frequency-based design have been analyzed. Likewise, the soil is first simulated as a spring to verify the accuracy of the output results. Then, the soil is modelled with the Mohr-Coulomb behavioral model in ABAQUS software, and the obtained results will be discussed and analyzed. It is worth bearing in mind that for verification, only the frequency outputs of the software were compared with the basic paper, and then the mesh dimensions and element boundary distances were examined for the study and software approval.

References:

[1] Global Wind Energy Council. Global wind report annual market update 2014

[2]S.Austin, S.Jerath, “Effect of soil-foundation-structure interaction on the seismic response of wind turbines”, Ain Shams Engineering Journal, Volume 8, Issue 3, September 2017, Pages 323-331

[3]O.Diaz, L.Suarez, “Seismic Analysis of Wind Turbines”, Sage Journals, Volume 30, Issue 2, Published 1 May 2014

[4] E. Hau, “Wind turbines: fundamentals, technologies, application, economics.”, Springer Verlag, 2006.

[5] G. Lloyd, “Guidelines for the Certification of Wind Turbines.” , Hamburg, Germany, 2010.

[6] I. Prowell, “An experimental and numerical study of wind turbine seismic behavior.”, University of California, San Diego, 2011.

[7] “Guidelines for Design of Wind Turbines.” Copenhagen, Denmark, 2001.

[8] I. Lavassas, G. Nikolaidis, P. Zervas, E. Efthimiou, I. N. Doudoumis, and C. C. Baniotopoulos, “Analysis and design of the prototype of a steel 1-MW wind turbine tower,” Eng. Struct., vol. 25, 2003

[9] Y. Yan, C. Li, Z. Li, “Buckling analysis of a 10 MW offshore wind turbine subjected to wind-wave-earthquake loadings” Ocean Engineering, Volume 236, 15 September 2021, 109452

[10] K. Lin, B. Ma, S. Yang, A. Zhou, “Experimental study of wind turbine in operation under wind and seismic excitations with soil-structure interaction” , Engineering Structures, Volume 308, 1 June 2024, 117927


[11] M.Zabihi Samani, M.Daryabari, A.Daryabari, A.Mirhabibi, “Numerical and Laboratory Investigation of Optimal FIROZBAHRAM soil Improvement with Lime and Cement and Its Impact on Reduction of Soil Settlement in West Tehran Wastewater Treatment Plant”, Amirkabir J. Civil Eng., 53(7) (2021) 645-648

[12] A.Chopra, “Dynamics of Structures: Theory and Applications to Earthquake Engineering”, First published (1995)