Problem

With the advancement and development of alternative energies, new grounds in electric power supply are broken with wind energy. Promising in particular is the usage of wind energy plants in seas (offshore wind energy plants). First parks of offshore wind energy plants were brought on line or planned in Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands.

New parks are supposed to be far beyond the size of the existing ones. Within the current preliminary planning, wind energy plants with performance values of up to 5 MW for boss heights of up to 100m and a large number of plants (up to several hundred) in one park are discussed. To realize these plans, locations far off the coast in the North- and Baltic Sea with depths of up to 30m have to be considered. The steel insert will range in several million tons. The cost-effectiveness of such plants is mainly depending on their availability and durability, and with that, on the carrying capacity and the fatigue resistance of the supporting structure including the foundations. Due to the higher demands on offshore plants compared to onshore plants, new concepts regarding the supporting structures, assembly and transportation have to be developed.

The goal is to evaluate the problems regarding the assembly, the stability and durability of such plants and to create new solutions. Such would be the usage of high strength materials, methods for fatigue calculation and for evaluation of the durability of typical details. Another thing to do is the development of alternative foundation structures in the form of separate structures (Tripod/Jacket).

The differences to the existing structures will be shown. All new influencing factors will be considered. The project accompanying workgroup is able to set new focuses and regulate the priorities of objectives mentioned above.