Scour is a physical process related to seabed sediment movement due to water flowing around structures. The interaction of offshore foundations with wave and current may erode the surrounding seabed and significantly affect the total load on wind turbines.
Together with LIC Engineering, DHI has helped Vattenfall optimise and design the scour protection system for Danish Kriegers Flak (DKF) offshore wind farm. To maintain the seabed around the monopile foundations at a fixed level, a scour protection system consisting of rock is applied in the design. Scour protection systems are traditionally applied in two consecutive stages. Instead of the traditional two-layer solution, it is now possible to install a single layer of graded scour protection. The wide-graded rock material encompasses both the filter and armour effect, and can be installed at the site in one step. Considering the installation of the stone material and the monopiles, the total installation procedure has been reduced from three to two steps, resulting in cost savings.
