Ice Loads for Wind-Power Foundations in the Gulf of Bothnia

Paper in proceeding, 2009

Ice loads measured on lighthouses in the Gulf of Bothnia can serve as guidance for design of foundations for wind-power generators. At some locations in the sea these structures must withstand high pressure from solid land fast ice as well as from ridges or other compacted ice masses that are drifting. Recommendations for design of offshore foundations around the Swedish coastline have recently been written by the authors. For the purpose of design, effective pressure as well as compressive strength is assumed to be independent of ice thickness. All structures should be designed for dynamic ice loads that are dependent on the natural frequency of the structure and the ice drift velocity. Increased effective pressure has earlier been indicated for high speed ice crushing both in field studies and compression tests. The presented results from ice load measurements on lighthouse Norströmsgrund support the suspicion that also design ice loads should increase with drift speed. This rate effect and other uncertainties about the worst case scenario for ice-induced vibrations suggest a more conservative design of wind-power foundations inside the dynamic ice zone.