Abstract
Founding of offshore wind turbines by pile driving induces considerable underwater sound emissions that are potentially harmful to marine life. In Germany, the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) has set a standard level of 160 dB (SEL) at a distance of 750 m from pile driving. Effective noise reducing methods are necessary to keep this standard level. The new method of hydro sound dampers (HSD) uses curtains of robust air filled elastic balloons showing high resonant effects, similar to air bubbles, but also balloons with additional dissipative effects from material damping and special dissipative PE-foam elements to reduce impact noise. The resonance frequency of the elements, the optimum damping rate for impact noise, the distribution and the effective frequency range can be fully controlled, if the HSD-elements are fixed to pile surrounding fishing nets. HSD-systems are independent of compressed air, not influenced by tide currents and easy adaptable to different applications. The theoretical background, numerical simulations, laboratory tests and offshore tests of HSD-systems result in noise mitigations between 17 dB to 35 dB (SEL). The work is supported by the German Federal Environmental Ministry (BMU).
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