Engineering screw piles to secure offshore wind energy turbines

PhD student

Zeliang Li

Supervisors

Prof Yinghui Tian	Prof Mark Cassidy	Dr Shubhrajit Maitra

Project Start Date: February 2022

Project Details

Screw piles or so-called helical anchors have been routinely used as foundations for land use to withstand relatively large tension load. Due to its relatively quiet installation process and strong capability to provide significant uplift resistance, its application on offshore wind industry is considered as a potential solution for larger scale turbines in deep water where the tension on the upwind footing could become a critical issue. This project will use innovative geotechnical methods to develop verified designs, guidelines and numerical tools for predicting the forces required to install screw piles into the seabed and their capacity to resist extreme wind and wave forces relevant to these structures. As foundations cost up to 35% of construction, screw piles will provide significant economic and environmental benefits in reducing costs and unlocking substantial renewable energy from our oceans.