4C Offshore Empowering Intelligence

Test shows potential for vibratory piling

4C Offshore | Tom Russell
By: Tom Russell 23/11/2015 RWE Innogy
RWE Innogy, Bilfinger Offshore, DONG Energy, EnBW, E.ON and Vattenfall have joined forces to launch a pilot project to test the behaviour of vibratory piling for offshore foundations.

The project was part of the Carbon Trust Offshore Wind Accelerator, a development programme aimed at reducing the costs of offshore wind energy.

The tests involved a comparison between the conventional method of impact hammering with the vibration of steel piles in a test environment on land. It is aimed to prove whether vibratory piling can offer a faster and more environmentally friendly method of installing steel foundations for offshore wind farms and to evaluate the method with regard to stability.

The consortium have announced today that the test on land show that the vibratory method generates lower peak noise emissions and is up to ten times faster. However continuously present noise emissions will need to be determined on a project specific basis because it will have an impact on the environment under water.

In the course of the tests it was also discovered that the vibratory installation method has a major impact on the lateral load-bearing capacity of the piles. If during the installation process various parameters, such as vibratory frequencies or pile design, are controlled, similar lateral load-bearing capacities to hammered piles could be achieved.

The consortium devised a methodology that made it possible to pre-determine the load-bearing capacity of vibrated piles. RWE Innogy now plans to build on these tests and launch an additional subproject intended to investigate ways of optimising the installation methodology itself.

Jan Matthiesen, Director of Innovation at the Carbon Trust commenting on the positive results:
“Finding innovative methods to reduce the cost of installation will help to bring down the cost of offshore wind, making it competitive with conventional energy sources. The project results not only demonstrate that vibro techniques could be a viable method for piling, but also evidence of what can be achieved through industry collaboration.”

“Throughout the project we have collected a lot of important data, that can now be used to further develop the technology to bring it offshore”
, explains Ben Matlock from RWE Innogy.


 

Premium

ForeSEE Premium, our most popular subscription, gives you full access to use the ForeSEE WebApp which includes exclusive offshore wind, transmission and vessel reports, news and downloads.

Request a 30 minute Demo

Trending News!