Passive control of jacket–type offshore wind turbine vibrations by single and multiple tuned mass dampers

Abstract Vibration control is gaining focuses in the field of offshore wind turbines (OWTs) in recent years as the turbine tower becomes taller and more slender. Although a number of research works have been carried out to control the OWT vibrations, using tuned mass damper (TMD) and multiple tuned mass dampers (MTMDs) to control the jacket–type OWT vibrations is rarely reported, especially for the MTMDs, of which the application in the field of OWTs is still in the initial stage. This study focuses on the performance of TMD and MTMDs in controlling the tower vibrations of the jacket–type OWT subjected to the combined wind, wave and current loads, which are the most common external vibration resources for OWTs. The control effectiveness is numerically investigated and evaluated by the reductions of the standard deviation displacement (σ(d)) and the standard deviation acceleration (σ(a)) of the tower top. After the installation of TMD, σ(d) and σ(a) are reduced by 32% and 29% respectively. Larger TMD mass ratios lead to better control effectiveness, but the improvement becomes less obvious as the mass ratios constantly increase. The control effectiveness of the MTMD system is slightly decreased compared with a single large TMD. However, the robustness of MTMDs is superior since the OWT vibrations can still be controlled effectively even if some TMDs do not function. The control effectiveness of the MTMD system can also be affected by the change in the positions of malfunctioned TMDs.