An offshore wind turbine can be considered as a relatively complex structural system
since several environmental factors (e.g. wind and waves) affect its dynamic
behavior by generating both an active load and a resistant force to the structure’s
deformation induced by simultaneous actions. Besides the stochastic nature, also
their mutual interaction should be considered as nonlinear phenomena could be
crucial for optimal and cost-effective design. Another element of complexity lies in
the presence of different parts, each one with its peculiar features, whose mutual
interaction determines the overall dynamic response to non-stationary environmental
and service loads. These are the reasons why a proper and safe approach to the
analysis and design of offshore wind turbines requires a suitable technique for
carrying out a structural and performances decomposition along with the adoption of
advanced computation tools. In this work a finite element model for coupled windwaves
analysis is presented and the results of the dynamic behavior of a monopiletype
support structure for offshore wind turbine are shown.