Tilt adjustment strategy and applicability of four-bucket jacket foundation for offshore wind turbines

Abstract

With the rapid development of offshore wind turbine industry, the development of sea areas will gradually move from offshore to deep sea. In this process, multi-bucket jacket foundation will become a highly potential infrastructure solution in the water depth of about 50 m due to its unique advantages. The closed space is formed inside the bucket foundation during the penetration process, so the suction sinking method can be used for penetration, the accurate grasp of the critical suction during the penetration process of the four-bucket jacket foundation determines whether the penetration process can be carried out smoothly. At the same time, appropriate tilt adjustment strategies need to be adopted promptly after the inclination occurs during the penetration process. In this paper, the tilt adjustment technique in the penetration process of the four-bucket jacket foundation was taken as the research object. Firstly, the model test was used to study the critical suction of the foundation at three different penetration depths, and the test results are compared with the theoretical calculation results. Subsequently, foundation on the above research results, the applicability of the tilt adjustment strategy when the tilt angles of 1°, 2° and 3° occurred at three penetration depths was analyzed, which provides technical guidance for the development of practical projects.