A New Technology Research for Scour Protection of Offshore Wind Turbine Foundation

Abstract

[Introduction] With the rapid development of offshore wind power in China, large diameter monopile foundation is be widely used. At the same time, the scour of foundation is becoming more and more serious. Therefore, to select a reasonable and suitable scour prevention scheme is of great significance for offshore wind farms' economic benefits and stable operation in the a long-term. [Method] Various scour protection methods for offshore wind farms have been presented in this paper. Scour development and various protection measures have been examined. The principles, parameters, design and construction plans of using chemically solidified sediment on an offshore wind project have been analyzed in this work. [Result] It has been shown that chemically solidified sediment improved the scour protection around tested monopile foundations at the wind farm site after two-year vessel based scanning and diver investigation. [Conclusion] Chemically solidified sediment shows great potential for scour protection at offshore wind farm sites with similar conditions.

Keywords

• large-diameter monopile
• scour
• chemically solidified soil
• construction plan