Given the harsh environment of offshore wind turbines, a major design and O&M challenge is the corrosion and fatigue of the structure. This webinar is designed to give attendees a more rounded appreciation of the unique considerations that should be given to the structural integrity assessment of offshore wind turbine foundations.

Several areas will be covered including:

​1. Fatigue crack initiation and growth in offshore structures
A brief introduction to S-N curves, Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics, Stress intensity factor

2. Defect assessment using failure assessment diagrams
Life prediction of cracked components and structures using level I, II and III FADs

3. Fracture mechanics based inspection
Paris law, Fatigue crack length estimation and inspection using the Paris law

4. Corrosion-fatigue testing and analysis of offshore monopile weldments
An introduction to corrosion-fatigue testing and analysis, Environmental Reduction Factor, Estimation of crack growth acceleration in free-corrosion environment, Demonstration of a case study: SLIC Joint Industry Project

5. Welding residual stresses in offshore wind monopiles
Residual stress measurement using destructive and non-destructive techniques, welding sequence effects on residual stress distribution in offshore wind monopiles, residual stress effects on fatigue crack initiation and propagation, demonstration of a case study: residual stress measurements in monopile weldments using neutron diffraction and contour techniques