Breaking waves on offshore wind turbines

The object of the project was to determine the wave impact on wind turbines and test ways to reduce such impacts. The project showed that all major wave loads are caused by breaking waves and that these in most cases constitute the most important design load. Maximum wave impact was measured as 1.8 times the water depth, and the physical model tests involving wave impact and water speed were comparable with full scale. 3D waves seem to have no significance compared with 2D waves, and erosion protection seems to have no effect on wave impact.