Effect of partial drainage on plate anchor capacity in sand
PhD student
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Zhenyu Liu |
Supervisors
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A/Prof Shiaohuey Chow | Dr Mason Ghafghazi(University of Toronto) | Prof Yinghui Tian |
Project Start Date: September 2021
Project goals
The problem of partial drainage is a roadblock that prevents us from safely building offshore floating renewable energy devices. This project aims to better understand how partial drainage impacts the plate anchors that hold these offshore constructs in place.
The goals of this project are to:
- Develop and implement a coupled finite element model that evaluates the partial drainage effects on plate anchors in sand.
- Perform numerical parametric studies to understand the various influences on plate anchor response.
- Perform an experimental study of partially-drained plate anchor pull-out tests to validate our numerical results.
Project details
Offshore floating renewable energy devices, such as wind turbines, have become more widespread in recent times. In order to moor these devices securely into the seabed, a suitable anchor is needed. However, we have yet to find a viable cost-effective anchor solution. Plate anchors appear to be a promising answer, but we still need a better understanding of how they perform under a variety of offshore conditions.
In particular, severe storms can impose rapid loading rates upon the anchors, which results in partial drainage. Partial drainage occurs when the water in the porous sand skeleton is unable to drain away upon loading, resulting in a rapid increase of pore water pressure. The reduced drainage has a significant effect on the seabed sand strength, which in turn affects the capacity of plate anchors. It is important that we understand and learn how to mitigate the effects of partial drainage so that plate anchors can be implemented safely and effectively. This project thus aims to investigate the effect of partial drainage on plate anchor capacity in sand using numerical and experimental approaches.