Windports

“DEVELOPMENT OF NEW CONCRETE DRAWERS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF PORT DOCKS INTENDED FOR THE LOCATION OF WIND FARMS - WINDPORTS” is an R&D project developed during 2018-2019 between the companies ROVER MARITIME and INGEOMAR and supported by IVACE within the Program of R&D Projects in Cooperation with co-financing from the FEDER Funds of the Valencian Community 2014-2020.

The main objective of the project was the design, development and structural verification of the adequacy of the usual reinforced concrete caissons in the conformation of the infrastructure of the shelter dock, to enable them to house wind farms in port areas.

To date, various wind farms have been installed in harbor sheltering works around the world, but always on sloping levees. The main novelty proposed by the project is the installation and foundation of wind turbines on vertical piers built using concrete marine caissons.

Within the framework of the project, the characteristics of the wind turbine were determined considering the wind resource at various locations in the national territory (Valencia, Bilbao, Tenerife). From the wind turbine data, the loads acting on the caisson were calculated as a previous step to the development of a new model of maritime caisson with circular cells expressly conceived to be able to house the foundation of a wind turbine, as shown in the scaled figure. The caisson designs proposed as solutions for the foundation of the wind turbine were modelled using SAP2000 software considering service conditions.

Institute for Concrete Technology, ICITECH, from the Polytechnic University of Valencia also collaborated in the project for the assessment of applying special concretes, specifically high-performance concrete (UHPC), in some caisson elements, considering the advantages that this type of concrete is capable of providing: absence of reinforcement, compressive strength greater than 150 MPa, high durability due to low porosity and permeability, among others.