Understanding vibratory piles in sand: installation and lateral response. This project aims to address uncertainties in the design of vibro-driven piles. This promising alternative to impact-driven piles offers faster installation and requires no noise mitigation. The project expects to generate new knowledge of the effect of the installation process in sand on in-service pile response by integrating findings from innovative experiments and numerical modelling. This is particularly important for ....Understanding vibratory piles in sand: installation and lateral response. This project aims to address uncertainties in the design of vibro-driven piles. This promising alternative to impact-driven piles offers faster installation and requires no noise mitigation. The project expects to generate new knowledge of the effect of the installation process in sand on in-service pile response by integrating findings from innovative experiments and numerical modelling. This is particularly important for highly sensitive structures such as offshore wind turbines, which provide a rapidly increasing share of global energy supply. Expected outcomes include practical recommendations for vibro-piles in sand. This should provide sizeable benefits by unlocking vibro-piles as a viable method to reduce offshore wind farm costs.Read moreRead less
Design guideline for suction caissons supporting offshore wind turbines. This project aims to develop an industry guideline for suction caisson foundations, that are a new form of fixed platform anchor, for offshore wind turbines. The project expects to generate new knowledge of caisson response during installation and over millions of wind/wave load cycles, by integrating field experience with measurements from innovative experiments. The expected outcomes of this project include new methods to ....Design guideline for suction caissons supporting offshore wind turbines. This project aims to develop an industry guideline for suction caisson foundations, that are a new form of fixed platform anchor, for offshore wind turbines. The project expects to generate new knowledge of caisson response during installation and over millions of wind/wave load cycles, by integrating field experience with measurements from innovative experiments. The expected outcomes of this project include new methods to guide suction installation in difficult soil layering and predicting rotation and stiffness over a turbine’s operational life. The benefits of these scientific advances will contribute to the economic and reliable design of suction caisson foundations and a more rapid take-up of offshore wind energy.Read moreRead less
Anchoring the next generation of offshore floating infrastructure. This project aims to advance the fundamental scientific understanding of embedded anchor behaviour and to develop engineering solutions to secure the next generation of floating platforms, wind turbines and submerged tunnels. This is significant because limited understanding of anchors under long-term sustained and cyclic loading, and in how wave-chain-anchor systems behave, is hindering confident deployment in deep water and har ....Anchoring the next generation of offshore floating infrastructure. This project aims to advance the fundamental scientific understanding of embedded anchor behaviour and to develop engineering solutions to secure the next generation of floating platforms, wind turbines and submerged tunnels. This is significant because limited understanding of anchors under long-term sustained and cyclic loading, and in how wave-chain-anchor systems behave, is hindering confident deployment in deep water and harsh conditions. This project will address this challenge by combining precise observations from sophisticated physical and numerical experiments into an analysis framework that integrates system response. Outcomes will include numerical software, analytical tools and design charts for engineers to use in design.Read moreRead less
Engineering screw piles to secure offshore wind energy turbines. This project aims to tackle the scientific challenges of using screw piles as foundations for deep water offshore wind turbines. Current foundations for offshore infrastructure developments have reached their limits, and conventional screw piles are designed for land use. This project will use innovative geotechnical methods to develop verified designs, guidelines and numerical tools for predicting the forces required to install sc ....Engineering screw piles to secure offshore wind energy turbines. This project aims to tackle the scientific challenges of using screw piles as foundations for deep water offshore wind turbines. Current foundations for offshore infrastructure developments have reached their limits, and conventional screw piles are designed for land use. This project will use innovative geotechnical methods to develop verified designs, guidelines and numerical tools for predicting the forces required to install screw piles into the seabed and their capacity to resist extreme wind and wave forces relevant to these structures. As foundations cost up to 35% of construction, screw piles will provide significant economic and environmental benefits in reducing costs and unlocking substantial renewable energy from our oceans.Read moreRead less
Smart site investigation for offshore energy installations in sand . This project aims to develop a next generation tool for seabed site investigations. It will use free-fall penetrometers, advanced physical modelling and novel probabilistic methods to investigate fundamental science of sand responses at low stress level and generate new interpretation methods. Outcomes of this project include a scientific framework to predict soil design parameters at unsampled seabed locations. A game changer ....Smart site investigation for offshore energy installations in sand . This project aims to develop a next generation tool for seabed site investigations. It will use free-fall penetrometers, advanced physical modelling and novel probabilistic methods to investigate fundamental science of sand responses at low stress level and generate new interpretation methods. Outcomes of this project include a scientific framework to predict soil design parameters at unsampled seabed locations. A game changer in offshore site investigations, the project will provide cheaper and faster geotechnical site investigation in sand at a time of global increase in offshore energy installations (worth 4 trillion over the next decade).Read moreRead less