ENGINEERING
Session 2 2013
CVEN3031: CIVIL ENGINEERING PRACTICE
CVEN3731: ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING
PRACTICE
PROJECT 2: DESIGN OF AN OFFSHORE WINDFARM
To be completed in groups of 4.
With a targeted reduction in carbon emissions comes a need for producing energy from
renewable sources. Offshore wind farms are one of the preferred options in Europe and are
becoming increasingly popular in the Asia-Pacific region with many new wind farms having been
planned or recently constructed in China and Australia.
In this project you are given an offshore site and geotechnical investigation results and asked to
design a farm of thirty 2MW wind turbines. You will be required to consider a range of issues in
your design, but at a minimum you must:
Students enrolled in CVEN3031:
1. As a group identify issues relevant to design by reflecting on lecture content, material provided
and further reading;
2. As a group establish design loads and serviceability criterion for foundation design;
3. As a group design farm layout, investigate different foundation options and perform simple
back of the envelope designs for each;
4. As a group detail the design of the preferred foundation option/s
5. As a group write a design report having a maximum length of 15 pages including calculations
and appendices (single sided, 12 point font). An additional two pages of drawings are
permitted of either A4 or A3 size. No title pages permitted. Make sure student names are
clearly indicated in a header or footer.
6. As an individual make a contribution to an issue not considered or treated in depth in the
group report, having a maximum length of 1 page (single sided, 12 point font) including
calculations and figures. The individual contribution is a chance for you to showcase your
broader engineering interests and skills in design, analysis and project delivery. Issues that
may be focussed on in your individual contributions include: dynamics of the wind turbine
structure; fatigue of the structure with cyclic loading and harsh environment exposure; soilstructure interaction considering cyclic loading; assessment of wave loading; assessment of
tidal loading; scour prediction and protection; constructability and construction management;
risk management; site investigations required for more detailed design; sustainability;
environmental impact; social impact; economic feasibility; etc. Other issues not in this list may
also be considered at your discretion. The one page contribution should be a stand alone
document, and not require the marker to have the group report submission for cross
referencing in its assessment.
Students enrolled in CVEN3731:
1. As a group identify design issues relevant to the wind farm design and its interaction with the
environment, by reflecting on lecture content, material provided and further reading;
2. As a group establish design loads and serviceability criterion for foundation design;
3. As a group design farm layout, investigate different foundation options and perform simple
back of the envelope designs for each;
4. As a group assess in detail impact of the wind farm on environment; and/or detail the design
of the preferred foundation option/s.
5. Write a group design report having a maximum length of 15 pages including calculations and
appendices (single sided, 12 point font). An additional two pages of drawings are permitted of
either A4 or A3 size.
6. As an individual make a contribution to an issue not considered or treated in depth in the
group report, having a maximum length of 1 page (single sided, 12 point font) including
calculations and figures. The individual contribution is a chance for you to showcase your
broader engineering interests and skills in design, analysis and project delivery. Issues that
may be focussed on in your individual contributions include: carbon footprint; assessment of
wave loading; assessment of tidal loading; scour prediction and protection; risk management;
sustainability; environmental impact; environment protection; site investigations required for
more detailed design; social impact; economic feasibility; etc. Other issues not in this list may
also be considered at your discretion. The one page contribution should be a stand alone
document, and not require the marker to have the group report submission for cross
referencing in its assessment.
Borehole records, in situ test results including CPT results and laboratory test results are
provided. Also provided is map of the site showing the locations of the boreholes and tests.
A nominal loading configuration that may be considered is shown in Figure 1. These are peak
unfactored loads. Wind and wave/current loads can act from any direction. You may choose to
ignore the wave/current loads and, as part of your assessable report content, calculate your own
wave/current loads based on a detailed consideration of tides and waves at the site. (Note: this
is not a real problem. The winds in the Botany Bay area in reality are not sufficient to
power an actual wind farm)
GENERAL COMMENTS
Wind farms are often placed on sites where there is little existing knowledge of the seabed and
2
2
environment. Also, the farms occupy areas ranging in size from 10km to 100km and the seabed
and environment may vary significantly within this. Foundations generally make up about 25% to
40% of a total project cost (see Figure 2). This, combined with the difficulty surrounding postinstallation remediation, make it important to perform thorough site investigations as well as
optimally design and install the foundations. Foundations used for offshore wind turbines for a
range of site conditions include:
Large diameter monopiles
These are installed by driving or a combination of drilling and driving. They are generally
considered to have low stiffness and potentially have problems of resonance when the water
depth exceeds 15m to 20m.
Gravity bases
These are stiffer foundations than monopiles and are suited to all water depths as long as a
stable flat seabed exists. Extensive seabed preparation and scour protection are required.
Piled tripods
These are a stiffer foundation than monopiles and are becoming cost effective for water depths
larger than about 15m to 20m.
Suction cans/caissons
These have similar advantages to gravity base foundations although in some cases additional
ballast is required to prevent overturning. Recent research on suction caissons has made this
technology more appealing.
Wind load
550 kN
60 + d m
Self weight
2000 kN
Mean sea level
Wave and current load
140d kN
0.6d m
Engineering and
Management
6%
Turbines
5%
Foundation
installation
13%
Turnine
installation
6%
Cable installation
8%
Cables
48%
Foundations
14%
Pass
Credit
Distinction
High distinction
KEY RESOURCES
These include the following chapters of books, design codes, journal articles and an online
lecture.
1
2
3
4
5
6
Document
Project Description
Site Map
Borehole and CPT data
Tips for interpreting borehole and CPT data
Monopiles for wind turbine foundations
Design of offshore wind turbine structures
(Det Norske Veritas, 2011, Offshore Standard DNV-OSJ101) PDF is on Moodle and available through library.
http://exchange.dnv.com/publishing/Codes/ToC_edition.as
p#Offshore
Offshore structure foundations. Chapter 18 from the
Foundation engineering handbook (Edited by Fang H.Y.
Chapman and Hall)
Construction of marine and offshore structures (Gerwick
B.C., 2000, CRC Press.
Type
PDF
PDF
PDF
PDF
PDF
PDF
Design
Code
Location
Moodle
Moodle
Moodle
Moodle
Moodle
Moodle
Moodle
Online
book
Accessed through
UNSW library
PDF
Book
Moodle
UNSW library high
use collection
Book
Book
Books
(five
volumes)
Journal
articles
1hr
Lecture
http://info.library.unsw.edu.au/cgibin/local/access/access.cgi?url=http://www.engnetbase.com/ejournals/books/book
_summary/summary.asp?id=502
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
http://ice.adobeconnect.com/p2utwtag5k4/
16
17
18
19
Book
Online
Book
Book
Moodle
Moodle