The first GROW project, ‘Gentle Driving of Piles’, received the approval of the Dutch RVO for granting a subsidy of 2.7 million euro. This project consortium is led by TU Delft and together with the GROW partners Boskalis, Deltares, DOT, Eneco, Sif, TNO, ECN, Shell, IHC, SHL and Van Oord, they will develop and test a novel pile installation method for offshore wind turbines.
The Gentle Driving of Piles project aims to help offshore wind contractors in making the pile installation process as efficient as possible by means of testing a novel pile installation method. This method is based on simultaneous application of low-frequency and high-frequency vibrators exciting two different modes of motion of the monopiles. The proposed method is called ‘Gentle Driving of Piles’ for its envisaged capability to reduce the driving loads and the emitted (underwater) installation noise.
These goals will be achieved without compromising the pile penetration speed and the soil bearing capacity, which is essential for a stable operation. During this project new models will be developed and validated with experimental data collected from a measurement campaign while novel pile installation methods will be tested. The TU Delft project team consists of prof.dr. Andrei Metrikine, dr.ir. Apostolos Tsouvalas and ir. Maxim Segeren.
Growth through Research, development & demonstration in Offshore Wind
GROW represents a 100 million euro size RD&D program. It is a Dutch consortium of around 20 leading partners that have agreed on knowledge exchange and intense cooperation throughout the program. They work to reduce the costs of offshore wind energy and to increase the value in the energy system and in the ecosystem. Research institutes and companies active across the entire offshore wind value chain will bring their innovations to the market.
Video: The animation shows the norm of the velocity field generated in the seawater region (underwater noise) and the seabed due to a single blow of a hydraulic hammer during the installation of a foundation pile for the offshore wind industry. The video has been composed by using results of the SILENCE software package developed within the FLOW programme by TUD (Courtesy of Dr. ir. Apostolos Tsouvalas)
Photo: TU Delft team with professor Tim van der Hagen (Rector Magnificus TU Delft & board member GROW).
More information
Website GROW
Prof. Dr. Andrei Metrikine (Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences), A.Metrikine@tudelft.nl,
+31 15 27 84749
Dr.ir. Apostolos Tsouvalas (Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences), A.Tsouvalas@tudelft.nl,+31 15 27 89225
Ir. Maxim Segeren (Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences), M.L.A.Segeren@tudelft.nl, +31 15 27 88934
Sharita Balgobind (Press Officer), U.S.Balgobind@tudelft.nl, +31 15 27 81588