Sinking failure of scour protection at wind turbine foundation

Abstract

This paper summarises the results of an experimental study on scour protection around offshore wind turbine foundations, with special emphasis on the sinking failure of the scour protection work in Horns Rev 1 offshore wind farm (Denmark). The paper reviews previous results obtained by the author (AN), and is organised as follows. Section 2 addresses flow around a pile with a scour protection. Section 3 looks at the initiation of sand motion beneath scour protection. Section 4 discusses sediment motion beneath scour protection and resulting sinking. Section 5 investigates the Horns Rev 1 case. A brief account is also given of filter criteria and their application to the Horns Rev 1 case, whereby the present results and the filter criteria results are linked.