Pitting Corrosion and Its Transition to Crack in Offshore Wind Turbine Supporting Structures

Offshore wind turbine support structures undergo pitting corrosion due to the marine environment. Besides, these structures are subject to fatigue loads due to wind and waves. The corrosion-fatigue phenomenon is considered as one of the most dangerous damage mechanisms for offshore structures. Corrosion pits attract stress which is why they are prone to turn into the crack(s). The main objective of this work is to implement computational studies on pitting corrosion and pit-to-crack transition. For pitting corrosion simulations, the phase-field modeling method is chosen. On the other hand, in order to predict the potential location of crack initiation, the stress concentration factor (SCF) concept is used for which a linear elasto-static stress analysis is implemented using the finite element method.