In 2010,the first offshore wind turbine with integrated installation was established in Qidong sea area of Jiangsu Province,China,which led to the implementation phase of one-step-installation technique based on the design and construction of large-scale bucket-top-bearing (LSBTB) bucket foundation.The critical technique of LSBTB bucket foundation included self-floating towing,penetration with adjustment of horizontal levelness,removability and one-step-installation.The process of one-step-installation included the prefabrication of LSBTB bucket foundation in onshore construction base,installation and debugging of wind power,overall water transportation of foundation and wind power system,and installation of foundation and offshore wind turbine on the appointed sea area.The cost of one-step-installation technique was about 5 000 Yuan/kW,which was 30%-50% lower than that of the existing technique.The prefabrication of LSBTB bucket foundation took about two months.During the one-step-installation process,the installation and debugging of wind power and overall water transportation need about one to two days in sea area within 35 m depth.After the proposed technique is industrialized,the cost will be further reduced,and the installation capacity is expected to be up to 500 wind turbines per year.
Cover-bearing-type bucket foundation for offshore wind turbines has been paid more and more attention due to its low cost and great bearing capacity. In order to ensure the cover-bearing mode, the muddy soil inside the bucket foundation should be reinforced by some soil consolidation methods, such as negative pressure and electro-osmosis. Firstly, tests were conducted to obtain the reasonable current density. Meanwhile, to improve the electro-osmotic speed and effectiveness, other factors such as intermittent power and layout of electrode, were also studied in the tests. Then, the soil reinforcing tests by negative pressure combined with electro-osmosis were performed for the muddy soil consolidation inside the bucket foundation. The results showed that soil reinforcement by negative pressure was quicker and more obvious during the early phase, and electro-osmotic method can affect more range of soil by rational arrangement of electrodes. Compared with negative pressure, the electro-osmotic method was a continuous and relatively slow process of reinforcement, which was complementary to the negative pressure method. The voltage value of electro-osmosis had little effect on the muddy soil reinforcement inside the bucket foundation, and 1.5 A was chosen as the most reasonable current value for scale model testing in the electro-osmotic method.
The platform with bucket foundations can penetrate and migrate by underpressure/positive pressure technique caused by pumping water out/in the bucket. However, the construction process of bucket foundations cannot be clearly observed and effectively controlled due to the special nature of sea environment. By using an advanced simulation development tool of Multigen Creator, the visual construction simulation program for the platform with bucket foundations was developed to set up the virtual reality system with interaction control and observation in every view angle based on the secondary development technology of Vega platform. The application results show that the method is feasible and effective by simulating the whole construction process for the platform with four bucket foundations.
The intact stability and damage stability of a model of an anemometer tower with buoyancy tank foundation are computed by the finite element software MOSES in this paper. The natural period of the anemometer tower is discussed through frequency domain analysis. The influence of a single factor, such as towing point position, wave height, wave direction and wave period, on towing stability is discussed through time domain analysis. At the same time, the towing stability under the condition of various combinations of many factors is analyzed based on the measured data of the target area. Computer simulation results show that the intact stability is preferable and the damage stability is sufficient under the condition of plenty of subdivisions. Within the scope of the buoyancy tank foundation,the higher the towing point position is, the better the stability is. Wave height has a great impact on the motion amplitude of buoyancy tank foundation, but the effect on the acceleration is not obvious; wave period has a great impact on the acceleration, while the effect on the motion amplitude is not obvious; following-waves towing is more conducive to safety than atry.
In order to study the towing dynamic properties of the large-scale composite bucket foundation the hydrodynamic software MOSES is used to simulate the dynamic motion of the foundation towed to the construction site.The MOSES model with the prototype size is established as the water draft of 5 and 6 m under the environmental conditions on site.The related factors such as towing force displacement towing accelerations in six degrees of freedom of the bucket foundation and air pressures inside the bucket are analyzed in detail.In addition the towing point and wave conditions are set as the critical factors to simulate the limit conditions of the stable dynamic characteristics.The results show that the large-scale composite bucket foundation with reasonable subdivisions inside the bucket has the satisfying floating stability.During the towing process the air pressures inside the bucket obviously change little and it is found that the towing point at the waterline is the most optimal choice.The characteristics of the foundation with the self-floating towing technique are competitive for saving lots of cost with few of the expensive types of equipment required during the towing transportation.
