Comportamiento geotécnico de la interacción fondo marino - anclaje de plataformas de energía eólica offshore

Abstract

Over the last years there has been a great development of offshore wind energy due to the increasing demand on renewable energies instead of the traditional ones and the need of new locations. In those sites, like Cantabrian Sea, where continental platforms are narrow, floating platforms are needed. One of the most used mooring systems is the one formed by tension lines and plate anchors. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the behaviour of plate anchors embedded in the seabed, focusing on the ultimate capacity of them. The study is developed from two perspectives: experimental and numerical. The former consisted in small scale tests with application of vertical loads on plate anchors embedded in sandy soil, while the latter consisted in simulations of this scenario both in 2D and 3D analyses. Santander Bay sand has been chosen as the soil for both cases. Circular and square anchors have been tested at several depths in order to analyze the influence of the geometry of the plate anchor. Finally numerical and experimental results have been compared. The comparison also included other results proposed in the bibliography.