Innovative Scour Protection System Put to Test in Denmark

In the framework of the Marinet program, IMDC, in a partnership with HR Wallingford, University of Ghent and the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, finalised the physical model tests at the University of Aalborg (DK) at the end of December 2012.

The test program was set-up to investigate an innovative scour protection system focussing on the reduction of armour stone sizes for shallow water conditions.

Partners managed to deliver a valuable set of physical test data, showing a remarkable capacity for the further development and application of a dynamic scour protection system for offshore wind turbine foundations.

The test results are currently under detailed investigation and will answer two main questions:

– Can the developers design a dynamically stable scour protection configuration and a stone size which is smaller than the one for a static scour protection system for the same design conditions?

– How thick should this armour layer be, to allow for the reshaping, but to maintain full coverage of the filter layer?

[mappress]
Press release, February 12, 2013; Image: imdc