Offshore areas have been developed and used for decades for oil production with the aid of fixed or floating platforms. Due to increased demand and calls for environmentally friendly, renewable energies, comparatively shallow offshore areas with water depths of up to 40 m are now also becoming increasingly interesting for the construction of offshore wind turbines. The water depth places high demands on the structures, which in turn pose equally great challenges for engineers.
The quest for the most effective design for the series production of different foundation concepts requires, among other things, the examination of current issues relating to wave loads and scour generation. Various aspects are therefore being investigated at the Ludwig Franzius Institute and the Large Wave Current Flume (GWK+) at Leibniz University Hannover as part of several industrial projects and research initiatives:
- Structural loads caused by non-breaking waves
- Impulsive loads caused by breaking waves
- Probabilities of sea state loads
- Scour development on different foundation structures
- Measures and effectiveness of scour protection systems
Depending on the issue at hand, small- or large-scale physical model tests are carried out for the investigations, which enable a relatively realistic analysis of the issues under investigation with the aid of special measurement technology.
Furthermore, these measurement data from the model tests, partly in combination with corresponding field data, are used for the calibration of numerical models, which are continuously being further developed at the institute.
With the help of the numerical models, various structural variants as well as areas that are difficult to access with measurement technology can be investigated with regard to flows, pressure distributions or scour formation.
Film about the research project RAVE
As part of the research project ‘RAVE – Research at alpha ventus’, in which we were involved in the GIGAWIND project, an exciting film has been produced that provides an insight into the work being done in the field of marine engineering.
Please note that activating the video will result in the transfer of data to the respective provider. Further information can be found in our privacy policy.
Play video
Contact
30167 Hannover
