PFI-TT: Cost-Effective Anchor for Offshore, Floating, Energy-harvesting Wind Towers

这项创新技术转化伙伴关系（PFI-TT）项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是降低浮动、海上、风力发电开发的资本成本。据估计，60%的海上风电发生在需要浮动装置的深水区。该技术适用于任何类型的浮式结构系泊系统。这种适应性为系统设计提供了高度的灵活性，以适应环境限制和商业渔业等竞争性海洋用途。高效率和紧凑的设计旨在最大限度地减少材料需求（从而减少供应链问题），减少运输和安装船的数量和尺寸，这些都是影响海上风电发展的关键制约因素。该技术被设计为安装在海底，使用的方法可以最大限度地减少对海洋生物的影响（例如噪音）。这项研究还将为一名博士后提供创新、知识产权保护和研究产品商业化方面的培训。拟议的项目将侧重于浮式海上风力涡轮机的新锚设计的商业化。锚的一个关键特点是它的高效率，它允许一个紧凑的尺寸，仍然能够抵抗来自15兆瓦或更大的风力涡轮机的负载需求。该锚杆几乎可以安装在任何土壤剖面中，并且可以提供高垂直载荷需求，克服了大多数现有锚杆的主要局限性。由于承载能力不依赖于瞬态吸力，因此在持续荷载作用下，锚固能力不减小。当现场条件允许时，圆形对称允许在共享锚系统中使用。锚可以部署在悬链线、绷紧和张力腿系统中，最大限度地提高了系泊系统设计者的灵活性，以适应环境限制。本研究的一项关键任务是模拟锚杆插入和拔出的缩小比例模型试验，以评估安装扰动效应。该项目还试图改进锚和安装跟随系统的结构设计，以最大限度地减少疲劳损伤。这项研究可能会产生一个锚和跟随系统的设计，为现场规模的中试做好充分的准备。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project is the reduction of capital costs for floating, offshore, wind power development. An estimated 60% of offshore wind occurs in deep waters requiring floating units. The proposed technology is adaptable to any type of mooring system for floating structures. This adaptability provides a high degree of flexibility in system design to accommodate environmental constraints and competing ocean uses such as commercial fisheries. The high efficiency and compact design is intended to minimize material requirements (and therefore supply chain issues) and reduce the required number and size of transport and installation vessels, which are critical constraints affecting offshore wind power development. The technology is designed to be installed into the seabed using methods which minimize impacts (e.g. noise) on marine life. This research will also provide training to a postdoctoral student on innovation, intellectual property protection, and commercialization of research products. The proposed project will focus on the commercialization of a new anchor design for floating offshore wind turbines. A key feature of the anchor is its high efficiency, which permits a compact size that is still capable of resisting the load demand from 15 MW or larger wind turbines. The anchor is installable in virtually any soil profile and can provide a high vertical load demand, overcoming major limitations of most existing anchors. As the load capacity does not depend on transient suction, the anchor capacity does not diminish under sustained loading. The circular symmetry permits use in a shared anchor system when site conditions permit. The anchor can be deployed in catenary, taut, and tension-leg systems, maximizing the flexibility of mooring system designers to accommodate environmental constraints. A key task in this research will be reduced scale model tests simulating the insertion and pullout of the anchor, so installation disturbance effects can be assessed. This project also seeks to refine the structural design of the anchor and the installation follower system with a view toward minimizing fatigue damage. This research may produce an anchor and follower system design fully ready for field-scale pilot tests.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.