Reducing geotechnical design conservatism to secure floating wind energy

海上风能的下一个前沿是进一步向海上移动，以利用更强和更稳定的风速。在这些水深中，风力涡轮机安装在固定在海底锚上的漂浮物上。锚固件的岩土工程设计本质上是保守的，是由石油和天然气设施的技术和经济考虑因素决定的。如果浮式风力发电要在商业上可行，海上风能行业就不能采取这种保守的做法。该项目将通过数值开发、土工离心建模和现场测试，开发科学，从而实现基于可靠性的土工设计方法，使浮动海上风能经济可行。

The next frontier for offshore wind energy is moving further out to sea to avail of stronger and more consistent wind speeds. In these water depths, wind turbines are installed on floaters tethered to anchors in the seabed. Geotechnical design of anchors is inherently conservative, having been shaped by technical and economic considerations of oil and gas facilities. The offshore wind energy industry cannot afford to adopt such conservatism if floating wind is to become commercially viable. This project will, through numerical developments, geotechnical centrifuge modelling and field testing, develop the science that will lead to a reliability-based geotechnical design approach to make floating offshore wind energy economic and viable.