ABSTRACT
The rapid development of the offshore wind industry has generated increased interest in marine environments. To obtain environmental data pertinent to the operation of an offshore wind farm, a metrology mast was installed by the Taiwan Power Company (TPC). This study focusses on structural vibration monitoring by the mast. To better understand the dynamics of marine structures under force, it is necessary to measure the interactions between these structures and the surrounding environment. The main purpose of the mast is to enable long-term structural vibration monitoring. The metrology mast, is located six kilometers offshore from Changhua Wang-Gong Fishing Port. The information provided by the mast will have a significant bearing on the design of offshore structures in the future, such as offshore wind turbines. In the present study, we analyze data obtained from the mast, aiming to develop existing knowledge on the dynamics of offshore structures. The content of the article includes: (1) an introduction to the structural vibration monitoring system. (2) The specifications of the measurement equipment. (3) A exhibition of the measurement data.
Long-term changes in structural dynamic characteristics and the responses of offshore structures to environmental loads has emerged as an important area of research in recent years. The limitations of monitoring equipment hardware and big data analysis technologies generally made long-term observations of structural dynamic characteristics difficult to obtain. As a result of these limitations, numerical simulation and experimental verification approaches have formed the dominant methods of study in the field. Directly linking research to physical models and forming comparisons between models and existing structures is challenging. Recent technological advances have enabled us to perform long-term monitoring of marine structural vibrations at a meteorology mast belonging to the Taiwan power company (TPC), located offshore at Long-Feng Port, Taiwan. By establishing a complete and reliable model, the observations offer valuable insight for the scientific and engineering community concerned with offshore wind power construction and interested in the behavior of marine structures. The paper proceeds as follows. Key issues and related research are discussed. An analysis and discussion of the data used in the study follows. Finally, an example of observations made by the mast are presented providing an idea of the insight the measurements provide on the behavior of marine structures.
