Kolkbildung an komplexen Gründungsstrukturen für Offshore-Windenergieanlagen

Investigations on scour at tripod foundations

Regarding offshore constructions, in most cases scouring occurs around the foundation, considerably influencing the stability and usability of the structure. There is still a lack in knowledge of scour progression for complex foundations at present, which is however necessary for the dimensioning of the construction. Therefore comprehensive investigations are carried out, mainly focusing on the scouring phenomena at complex foundations like the tripod, in order to describe physical processes and influencing factors. The investigation method consists of a unique combination of small and large scale physical modeling, numerical CFD simulations and in-situ measured scour data, which generally show a variability of scouring depending on load boundary conditions and structural parameters with largest scours measured under the tripod structure.