Performance Testing of a Novel Gravity Base Foundation for Offshore Wind

In recent years, the international demand to produce green energy has been growing to address the issues of energy security and climate change. To date, the wind sector has probably advanced the most due to high availability of wind resources. Erecting wind turbines offshore, however, presents significant new engineering challenges. Offshore foundations for these energy converters must be able to resist large overturning moments as well as numerous cycles of lateral loading caused by wave and wind. Thus, the need for an efficient cost-effective foundation to support the turbines is becoming more important. In this paper, a specific design of a gravity base foundation system developed for offshore wind turbines is considered. The foundation is a conical hollow concrete gravity type structure which rests on the seabed and utilises its self-weight to support the turbine. A scale-model of the proposed foundation has been experimentally tested at the University College Dublin test site in Blessington, Ireland. This paper presents the findings of this research.