First steps into the calibration chamber pile tests with glauconitic sands: On the behaviour of the sand fraction from glauconitic sand of the Kattendijk formation in Antwerp, Belgium

The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) forecasts an accelerated increase in wind installations as a result of the aggressive climate change and green energy objectives set by the majority of countries. As a consequence, new regions worldwide that were previously thought to be unsuitable for the construction of offshore wind farms due to the soil...

Helical Piles as Complementary Foundation for Offshore Temporary Structures: A study into the effects of incorporating helical piles into monopile installation templates

This study examines the effect of adding helical piles to the foundation mechanism of monopile installation templates. A monopile installation template is a gravity-based structure, which is placed on the seabed. The installation template is utilised for the installation of monopiles, and to ensure its verticality during this installation. At...

Feasibility assessment of motion compensated cranes at an early design stage

Current service and installation activities to offshore wind turbines (OWTs) are mainly carried out by jack-up vessels. These vessels are less susceptive to disturbances caused by sea waves when they lift their hull from the water level by jacking down multiple legs to the seabed. An alternative is a crane mounted on a floating vessel, which has...

Upending of a Monopile for an Offshore Wind Turbine Foundation

The subject of this report is the upending of a floating monopile for an offshore wind turbine foundation. This is an assignment of Van Oord Dredging and Marine Contractors BV. An analytical model has been developed to simulate the upending of a monopile in MapleTM, based on the general theoretical principles and the experience of Van Oord. An...

A Novel Method for Installing Offshore Wind Turbine Blades with a Floating Vessel

Trends in the offshore wind market show that newly installed wind farms move towards deeper waters. Wind turbine generators are currently installed using jack-up vessels, which have a limited operating depth. Installation of wind turbines using a floating vessel is an alternative for the current method, but blade installation is an area which is...

On the modelling of installation effects on laterally cyclic loaded monopiles

Monopiles are being used more extensively for offshore wind turbine foundation. Current guidelines on the construction of fixed offshore foundations still base the design of laterally loaded piles in sand on empirical data (p-y curves), originating from the oil and gas industry, from field tests executed in 1974 on 0.61 m diameter piles. However...