Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Structural Engineering and Mechanics, cilt.88, sa.3, ss.273-285, 2023 (SCI-Expanded)
This study examines how the interaction between soil and a wind turbine’s supporting system affects the optimal design. The supporting system resting on an elastic soil foundation consists of a steel conical tower and a concrete circular raft foundation, and it is subjected to wind loads. The material cost of the supporting system is aimed to be minimized employing various metaheuristic optimization algorithms including teaching-learning based optimization (TLBO). To include the influence of the soil in the optimization process, modified Vlasov and Gazetas elastic soil models are integrated into the optimization algorithms using the application programing interface (API) feature of the structural analysis program providing two-way data flow. As far as the optimal designs are considered, the best minimum cost design is achieved for the TLBO algorithm, and the modified Vlasov model makes the design economical compared with the simple Gazetas and infinitely rigid soil models. Especially, the optimum design dimensions of the raft foundation extremely reduce when the Vlasov realistic soil reactions are included in the optimum analysis. Additionally, as the designated design wind speed is decreased, the beneficial impact of soil interaction on the optimum material cost diminishes.