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For vibration-based structural health monitoring (SHM) of wind turbine support structures, accelerometers are often used. Besides the structural acceleration, the measured quantity also contains the acceleration component due to gravity, which is known as tilt error. This tilt error must be quantified and taken into account; otherwise it can lead to incorrect evaluations, especially in the fatigue estimation or the dynamic displacement estimation using accelerometers. The standard solution is to explicitly measure the tilt angle, which requires an additional sensor for each measurement point and is not applicable for already recorded measurements without tilt information. Therefore, a novel tilt error compensation method is presented by using the static bending line. As a result the influence of the tilt error can be estimated in advance, and no additional sensors for tilt measurement are needed. The compensation method is applied to accelerometer measurements of an onshore wind turbine tower and validated with contactless absolute distance measurements from a terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) system. The position and frequency-dependent tilt error of the investigated tower has a significant influence on the quasi-static motion below 0.2 Hz with a minimum amplitude error of 9 %, whereas the normalised bending mode shapes around 0.3 Hz are only slightly affected.

Extensive measurements in the area of wind turbines were performed in order to validate a sound propagation model which is based on the Crank–Nicolson parabolic equation method. The measurements were carried out over a flat grass-covered landscape and under various environmental conditions. During the measurements, meteorological and wind turbine performance data were acquired and acoustical data sets were recorded at distances of 178, 535 and 845 m from the wind turbine. By processing and analysing the measurement data, validation cases and input parameters for the sound propagation model were derived. The validation includes five groups that are characterised by different sound propagation directions, i.e. downwind, crosswind and upwind conditions in varying strength. In strong upwind situations, the sound pressure levels at larger distances are overestimated because turbulence is not considered in the modelling. In the other directions, the model reproduces the measured sound propagation losses well in the overall sound pressure level and in the third octave band spectra. As in the recorded measurements, frequency-dependent maxima and minima are identified, and losses generally increase with increasing distance and frequency. The agreement between measured and modelled sound propagation losses decreases with distance. The data sets used in the validation are freely accessible for further research.

Substructures of offshore wind turbines are becoming older and beginning to reach their design lifetimes. Hence, lifetime extensions for offshore wind turbines are becoming not only an interesting research topic but also a relevant option for industry. To make well-founded decisions on possible lifetime extensions, precise fatigue damage predictions are required. In contrast to the design phase, fatigue damage predictions can be based not only on aeroelastic simulations but also on strain measurements. Nonetheless, strain-measurement-based fatigue damage assessments for lifetime extensions have been rarely conducted so far. Simulation-based approaches are much more common, although current standards explicitly recommend the use of measurement-based approaches as well. For measurement-based approaches, the main challenge is that strain data are limited. This means that measurements are only available for a limited period and only at some specific hotspot locations. Hence, spatial and temporal extrapolations are required. Available procedures are not yet standardised and in most cases not validated. This work focusses on extrapolations in time. Several methods for the extrapolation of fatigue damage are assessed. The methods are intended to extrapolate fatigue damage calculated for a limited time period using strain measurement data to a longer time period or another time period, where no such data are available. This could be, for example, a future period, a period prior to the installation of strain gauges or a period after some sensors have failed. The methods are validated using several years of strain measurement data from the German offshore wind farm Alpha Ventus. The performance and user-friendliness of the various methods are compared. It is shown that fatigue damage can be predicted accurately and reliably for periods where no strain data are available. Best results are achieved if wind speed correlations are taken into account by applying a binning approach and if a least some winter months of strain data are available.

In this work, we present an experimental setup for very low frequency calibration measurements of low-noise integrated electronics piezoelectric (IEPE) accelerometers and a customised signal conditioner design for using IEPE sensors down to 0.05 Hz. AC-response IEPE accelerometers and signal conditioners have amplitude and phase deviations at low frequencies. As the standard calibration procedure in the low-frequency range is technically challenging, IEPE accelerometers with standard signal conditioners are usually used in frequency ranges above 1 Hz. Vibrations on structures with low eigenfrequencies like wind turbines are thus often monitored using DC-coupled micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) capacitive accelerometers. This sensor type suffers from higher noise levels compared to IEPE sensors. To apply IEPE sensors instead of MEMS sensors, in this work the calibration of the entire measurement chain of three different IEPE sensors with the customised signal conditioner is performed with a low-frequency centrifuge. The IEPE sensors are modelled using infinite impulse response (IIR) filters to apply the calibration to time-domain measurement data of a wind turbine support structure. This procedure enables an amplitude and phase-accurate vibration analysis with IEPE sensors in the low-frequency range down to 0.05 Hz.

The structural optimization problem of jacket substructures for offshore wind turbines is commonly regarded as a pure tube dimensioning problem, minimizing the entire mass of the structure. However, this approach goes along with the assumption that the given topology is fixed in any case. The present work contributes to the improvement of the state of the art by utilizing more detailed models for geometry, costs, and structural design code checks. They are assembled in an optimization scheme, in order to consider the jacket optimization problem from a different point of view that is closer to practical applications. The conventional mass objective function is replaced by a sum of various terms related to the cost of the structure. To address the issue of high demand of numerical capacity, a machine learning approach based on Gaussian process regression is applied to reduce numerical expenses and enhance the number of considered design load cases. The proposed approach is meant to provide decision guidance in the first phase of wind farm planning. A numerical example for a National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) 5 MW turbine under FINO3 environmental conditions is computed by two effective optimization methods (sequential quadratic programming and an interior-point method), allowing for the estimation of characteristic design variables of a jacket substructure. In order to resolve the mixed-integer problem formulation, multiple subproblems with fixed-integer design variables are solved. The results show that three-legged jackets may be preferable to four-legged ones under the boundaries of this study. In addition, it is shown that mass-dependent cost functions can be easily improved by just considering the number of jacket legs to yield more reliable results.

The main obstacles in preliminary design studies or optimization of jacket substructures for offshore wind turbines are high numerical expenses for structural code checks and simplistic cost assumptions. In order to create a basis for fast design evaluations, this work provides the following: first, a jacket model is proposed that covers topology and tube sizing with a limited set of design variables. Second, a cost model is proposed that goes beyond the simple and common mass-dependent approach. And third, the issue of numerical efficiency is addressed by surrogate models for both fatigue and ultimate limit state code checks. In addition, this work shows an example utilizing all models. The outcome can be utilized for preliminary design studies and jacket optimization schemes. It is suitable for scientific and industrial applications.

For the design and optimisation of offshore wind turbines, the knowledge of realistic environmental conditions and utilisation of well-founded simulation constraints is very important, as both influence the structural behaviour and power output in numerical simulations. However, real high-quality data, especially for research purposes, are scarcely available. This is why, in this work, a comprehensive database of 13 environmental conditions at wind turbine locations in the North and Baltic Sea is derived using data of the FINO research platforms. For simulation constraints, like the simulation length and the time of initial simulation transients, well-founded recommendations in the literature are also rare. Nevertheless, it is known that the choice of simulation lengths and times of initial transients fundamentally affects the quality and computing time of simulations. For this reason, studies of convergence for both parameters are conducted to determine adequate values depending on the type of substructure, the wind speed, and the considered loading (fatigue or ultimate). As the main purpose of both the database and the simulation constraints is to compromise realistic data for probabilistic design approaches and to serve as a guidance for further studies in order to enable more realistic and accurate simulations, all results are freely available and easy to apply.

Pile driving for offshore wind turbines typically generates high sound levels in the water column. Bubble curtains are frequently employed to protect marine fauna. This study aims to investigate the effect of a bubble curtain on the generated sound wave field. A recently developed seismo-acoustic model was extended by incorporating an established acoustic model of the bubble curtain. Subsequently, a detailed analysis of the sound wave field at an offshore wind farm construction site was conducted using both simulated and measured data. The results indicate a distance- and depth-dependent insertion loss, with reductions of approximately 2 to 4 dB observed at greater distances from the pile. For a more detailed analysis, a metric based on the concept of transmission loss was introduced. This demonstrates that the insertion loss caused by a bubble curtain can be formulated as a sum of two components: the loss due to the interaction between the bubbles and the sound wave field, and the altered bottom loss resulting from the scattering of the sound wave as it passes through the bubble curtain. Analysis of the simulation data highlights that sound scattering and the resulting altered bottom loss significantly contribute to the efficiency of the bubble curtain., (© 2025 Acoustical Society of America.)

Offshore pile driving not only generates high sound pressure levels, but also induces ground vibrations and particle motions that have the potential to affect fish and invertebrates living near or in the seabed. In particular, the seismic wave field in the form of interface waves is thought to be responsible for causing these particle motions and ground vibrations. However, the magnitude and spatial extent of the seismic wave field resulting from pile driving has not been clearly established. To fill this knowledge gap, this paper analyzes and illustrates in detail the seismic wave field at a construction site of the BARD Offshore 1 wind farm. For this purpose, the measured data from the construction site are compared to the results of a seismo-acoustic model. The measured and modeled data in combination provides a potential benchmark case for subsequent studies and other authors. The computed seismic wave field is investigated in terms of wave generation, mode composition, and propagation range of individual modes. The different seismic wave forms and their contribution to the particle motions in the seabed vicinity are discussed. The results indicate that, for the considered case, interface waves dominate the particle motion at the seafloor level up to a distance of 200 m., (© 2024 Acoustical Society of America.)

The bubble curtain is one of the most used measures to reduce underwater pile driving noise. A model of the local distribution of the effective wavenumber was developed. The bubble size distribution was derived from tank measurements. The local distribution of the air fraction was determined by means of an integral method. In a preliminary step, the transfer characteristics of a bubble curtain were studied. The results show a decrease of the transmission coefficient for higher frequencies and additionally for lower water depths. For lower frequencies, λ/2-transmission can be observed. Examining the noise mitigation of a bubble curtain under offshore conditions, a model of the acoustical scenario was developed. Two different offshore measurement sites are described in detail and compared to the modeling results. The distance between bubble curtain and the pile was identified as an important parameter affecting the noise mitigation. The presented approach shows an appropriate representation of the noise mitigation and allows, due to its generic definition, for future investigations of various aspects, e.g., the influence of the soil or the effect of an extra pile near system on the noise mitigation.

Geometrical non-linearity is one of the aspects to be taken into account for accurate analysis of fibre reinforced polymers (FRPs), since large displacements and rotations may be observed in many of its structural applications such as in aircraft wings and wind turbine blades. In this paper, a co-rotational formulation and implementation of an invariant-based anisotropic plasticity model are presented for geometrically non-linear analysis of FRPs. The anisotropic constitutive equations are formulated in the format of isotropic tensors functions. The model assumes an anisotropic pressure-dependent yield function, and in addition to this, a non-associated plastic potential function in order to model realistic plastic deformations in FRPs. The formulation is then cast in the co-rotational framework to consider the geometrical non-linear effects in an efficient manner. The developed model is implemented in the commercial finite element (FE) software ABAQUS/Implicit via the means of the user-defined material subroutine (UMAT). The kinematics within the co-rotational frame is explained briefly while the important aspects regarding the numerical treatment and implementation are discussed in detail. Representative numerical examples at different scales are presented to demonstrate the applicability and robustness of the proposed development.

Understanding the composite damage formation process and its impact on mechanical properties is a key step towards further improvement of material and higher use. For its accelerated application, furthermore, practice-related modeling strategies are to be established. In this collaborative study, the damage behavior of carbon fiber-reinforced composites under cyclic loading with load reversals is analyzed experimentally and numerically. The differences of crack density evolution during constant amplitude and tension-compression block-loading is characterized with the help of fatigue tests on cross-ply laminates. For clarifying the evolving stress-strain behavior of the matrix during static and fatigue long-term loading, creep, and fatigue experiments with subsequent fracture tests on neat resin samples are applied. The local stress redistribution in the composite material is later evaluated numerically using composite representative volume element (RVE) and matrix models under consideration of viscoelasticity. The experimental and numerical work reveals the strong influence of residual stresses and the range of cyclic tension stresses to the damage behavior. On the microscopic level, stress redistribution dependent on the mean stress takes place and a tendency of the matrix towards embrittlement was found. Therefore, it is mandatory to consider stress amplitude and means stress as inseparable load characteristic for fatigue assessment, which additionally is influenced by production-related and time-dependent residual stresses. The phenomenological findings are incorporated to a numerical simulation framework on the layer level to provide an improved engineering tool for designing composite structures.

Microcrack formation and delamination growth are the main damage mechanisms in thefatigue of composites. They lead to significant stiffness loss, introduce stress concentrations andcan be the origin of subsequent damage events like buckling or fibre breakage, especially in case ofshear and compression stresses during load reversal. Fatigue experiments of carbon fibre reinforcedlaminates were conducted at several stress ratios and analysed in terms of crack and delaminationgrowth. These investigations were accompanied by microscopic imaging, digital image correlationand finite element modelling to take into account the effects of residual stresses and crack closure.It was found that residual stresses significantly change the local stress ratio in off-axis layers andlead to residual crack opening of inter fibre cracks. These cracks remain open and close under highcompression loadings only. Furthermore, crack formation under pulsating compression loadingturned out to be driven by residual stresses leading to perpendicular cracks as observed underpure tension loading. The experimental findings further confirm the severe detrimental effect oftension-compression loading on crack formation and delamination growth compared to pulsatingtension-tension or compression-compression loads.

Candida glabrata is an important human fungal pathogen whose incidence continues to rise. Because many clinical isolates are resistant to azole drugs, the drugs of choice to treat such infections are members of the echinocandin family, although there are increasing reports of resistance to these drugs as well. In efforts to better understand the genetic changes that lead to altered responses to echinocandins, we screened a transposon-insertion library of mutants for strains to identify genes that are important for cellular responses to caspofungin, a member of this drug family. We identified 16 genes that, when disrupted, caused increased tolerance, and 48 genes that, when disrupted, caused increased sensitivity compared to the wild-type parental strain. Four of the genes identified as causing sensitivity are orthologs of Saccharomyces cerevisiae genes encoding proteins important for the cell wall integrity (CWI) pathway. In addition, several other genes are orthologs of the high affinity Ca(2+) uptake system (HACS) complex genes. We analyzed disruption mutants representing all 64 genes under 33 different conditions, including the presence of cell wall disrupting agents and other drugs, a variety of salts, increased temperature, and altered pH. Further, we generated knockout mutants in different genes within the CWI pathway and the HACS complex, and found that they too exhibited phenotypes consistent with defects in cell wall construction. Our results indicate that small molecules that inhibit the CWI pathway, or that the HACS complex, may be an important means of increasing the efficacy of caspofungin., (Copyright © 2016 Rosenwald et al.)

An approach for the prediction of underwater noise caused by impact pile driving is described and validated based on in situ measurements. The model is divided into three sub-models. The first sub-model, based on the finite element method, is used to describe the vibration of the pile and the resulting acoustic radiation into the surrounding water and soil column. The mechanical excitation of the pile by the piling hammer is estimated by the second sub-model using an analytical approach which takes the large vertical dimension of the ram into account. The third sub-model is based on the split-step Padé solution of the parabolic equation and targets the long-range propagation up to 20 km. In order to presume realistic environmental properties for the validation, a geoacoustic model is derived from spatially averaged geological information about the investigation area. Although it can be concluded from the validation that the model and the underlying assumptions are appropriate, there are some deviations between modeled and measured results. Possible explanations for the observed errors are discussed.

The installation of offshore wind farms in the German Exclusive Economic Zone requires the deployment of sonar transponders to prevent collisions with submarines. The general requirements for these systems have been previously worked out by the Research Department for Underwater Acoustics and Marine Geophysics of the Bundeswehr. In this article, the major results of the research project "Investigation of Sonar Transponders for Offshore Wind Farms" are presented. For theoretical investigations a hybrid approach was implemented using the boundary element method to calculate the source directivity and a three-dimensional ray-tracing algorithm to estimate the transmission loss. The angle-dependence of the sound field as well as the weather-dependence of the transmission loss are compared to experimental results gathered at the offshore wind farm alpha ventus, located 45 km north of the island Borkum. While theoretical and experimental results are in general agreement, the implemented model slightly underestimates scattering at the rough sea surface. It is found that the source level of 200 dB re 1 μPa at 1 m is adequate to satisfy the detectability of the warning sequence at distances up to 2 NM (≈3.7 km) within a horizontal sector of ±60° if realistic assumptions about signal-processing and noise are made. An arrangement to enlarge the angular coverage is discussed.

The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae responds to depletion of iron in the environment by activating Aft1p, the major iron-dependent transcription factor, and by transcribing systems involved in the uptake of iron. Here, we have studied the transcriptional response to iron deprivation and have identified new Aft1p target genes. We find that other metabolic pathways are regulated by iron: biotin uptake and biosynthesis, nitrogen assimilation, and purine biosynthesis. Two enzymes active in these pathways, biotin synthase and glutamate synthase, require an iron-sulfur cluster for activity. Iron deprivation activates transcription of the biotin importer and simultaneously represses transcription of the entire biotin biosynthetic pathway. Multiple genes involved in nitrogen assimilation and amino acid metabolism are induced by iron deprivation, whereas glutamate synthase, a key enzyme in nitrogen assimilation, is repressed. A CGG palindrome within the promoter of glutamate synthase confers iron-regulated expression, suggesting control by a transcription factor of the binuclear zinc cluster family. We provide evidence that yeast subjected to iron deprivation undergo a transcriptional remodeling, resulting in a shift from iron-dependent to parallel, but iron-independent, metabolic pathways.

The combination of a paramagnetic agent with an oil emulsion can uniformly enhance the small bowel. We discovered that the entire small bowel becomes homogeneously brighter than its surroundings when imaged with all commonly utilized pulse sequences. We have tried various combinations of ferric ammonium citrate, ferrous sulfate, gadolinium-DPTA and corn oil, olive oil and peanut oil. All paramagnetic oil emulsions tested were uniformly distributed throughout the small bowel, but the enhancement effect is much stronger with the ferric ammonium citrate and gadolinium-DPTA oil emulsions. We have also developed a mixture of Geritol, corn oil, ice cream and milk, which uniformly coats the small bowel wall, has good enhancement effect, tastes good, and is nutritious. With this dietary contrast, retroperitoneal structures including the pancreas can be well delineated. We conclude that the combination of a paramagnetic agent with an oil emulsion can work as a safe and effective magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) oral contrast agent with high patient acceptance.