Collaborative Research: Green Foundations for Green Energy

合作研究：绿色能源的绿色基础

• 批准号: 1301211
• 负责人: Robert Gilbert
• 金额: $ 29.81万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at Austin
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-09-01 至 2017-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1301211&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Green; Foundations; Energy

The motivation for this research is to inspire and facilitate the development of more sustainable foundation concepts, coined "green" foundations. The work is advancing a fundamental understanding of soil-structure interactions to develop a novel and sustainable foundation concept for offshore wind turbines: a Flying Wing Anchor. This anchor is a steel plate in the shape of an aerodynamically efficient winged aircraft. The anchor is installed silently and efficiently using gravity from free fall through the water column and penetration into the sea floor. Tension in the line that attaches the wind turbine structure to the anchor causes the anchor to dive and pitch toward the horizontal in service, maximizing the available holding capacity in bearing over the full wing surface in an extreme load. The intellectual challenges are (1) modeling the resistance of soil against a foundation in shear and bearing over the orders-of-magnitude range of strain rates corresponding to free-fall penetration, line pre-tensioning and ultimately storm loading and (2) capturing the dynamic, fully six-degree-of-freedom movement of a foundation as it "flies" through the soil during installation and service. The research plan comprises a comprehensive approach to physically testing scale models of a Flying Wing Anchor during penetration and in-service loading and numerically modeling the three-dimensional behavior with time of a Flying Wing Anchor with the Finite Element Method (FEM) and advanced constitutive models. It capitalizes on a U.S.-Ireland Research and Development Partnership Program to bring together a multidisciplinary, multiple-institution team that represents the European state-of-the art in offshore wind development and the U.S. state-of-the-art in offshore foundations. The project partners include The University of Texas at Austin, the University of Rhode Island, University College Dublin and Queen's University Belfast. With external funding from Invest NI and Science Foundation Ireland, the U.S. investment in this project is leveraged at a ratio of nearly 3 total dollars for each dollar invested from NSF.This research has the potential to improve foundation systems over a wide range of offshore and onshore applications by developing a green foundation concept, where nature initially "installs" it through gravity and then completes the "installation" through in-service loading. This research aims to reduce the economic and environmental cost of harnessing offshore wind energy, which is a key challenge to increasing the availability of renewable energy. This research will benefit society at large by providing cross-country and cross-Atlantic education and research opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students, by fostering excitement in engineering and science for school children through exposing them to the development of a novel concept and giving them an opportunity to examine it themselves through a model testing facility, and by increasing public awareness of the promises and challenges of renewable energy through public demonstrations and workshops.

这项研究的动机是激发和促进更可持续的基金会概念的发展，即“绿色”基金会。 这项工作正在推进对土壤-结构相互作用的基本理解，为海上风力涡轮机开发一种新颖且可持续的基础概念：飞翼锚。 该锚是一块钢板，形状像空气动力学高效的有翼飞机。 锚利用自由落体穿过水柱并渗透到海底的重力，安静且高效地安装。 将风力涡轮机结构连接到锚的绳索中的张力导致锚在使用中向水平方向下潜和倾斜，从而最大化在极端负载下整个机翼表面的可用承载能力。 智力挑战是（1）在与自由落体穿透、线预张紧和最终风暴载荷相对应的应变率数量级范围内对土壤对地基的剪切和承载阻力进行建模，以及（2）捕获在安装和维修过程中，基础“飞”过土壤时的动态、全六自由度运动。 该研究计划包括一种综合方法，用于在穿透和使用中加载过程中对飞翼锚的比例模型进行物理测试，并使用有限元法 (FEM) 和先进的本构模型对飞翼锚随时间变化的三维行为进行数值建模。模型。 它利用美国-爱尔兰研究与开发合作伙伴计划，汇集了一支多学科、多机构的团队，代表了欧洲海上风电开发领域的最先进水平和美国海上基础领域的最先进水平。 该项目的合作伙伴包括德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校、罗德岛大学、都柏林大学学院和贝尔法斯特女王大学。 在 Invest NI 和爱尔兰科学基金会的外部资助下，美国对该项目的投资与 NSF 投资的每 1 美元的杠杆比例接近 3 美元。这项研究有潜力改善广泛的离岸和全球基础系统。通过开发绿色基础概念来实现陆上应用，大自然首先通过重力“安装”它，然后通过在役装载完成“安装”。 这项研究旨在降低利用海上风能的经济和环境成本，这是提高可再生能源可用性的一个关键挑战。 这项研究将为研究生和本科生提供跨国和跨大西洋的教育和研究机会，通过让学童接触新概念的发展并让他们了解新概念，激发他们对工程和科学的兴趣，从而造福整个社会。通过模型测试设施亲自检验它的机会，并通过公共演示和研讨会提高公众对可再生能源的前景和挑战的认识。