Experimental Investigation of Concrete Jacket Structures Upending Process Under Regular Waves

Offshore water depths varying from 30 to 50 m have a tremendous potential to harvest wind energy ≥6 MW. The roughness of the sea makes it very difficult for the installation of substructures from small tripod or jacket structures to floating substructures. More generic, we have to wait for calm sea period in the offshore for the installation of any such structures. It has created a need for research in investigating installation of structures in all-weather condition. Hence in order to increase the potential of installation of offshore structure, understanding the structural behavior during installation is vital. For understanding aforementioned structural behavior in installation, jacket structure which is very common fixed substructure is chosen and studied for all type of waves. In order to study such substructure, heaviest jacket for the given aspect ratio (HyConCast) is chosen. The concept of HyConCast jacket has advantages of combined ductile iron casting knots and precast concrete pipes which is the reason for the heavy mass of the structure. Because of its high mass compared to other offshore structures, its dynamic and excitation responses in regular waves during installation are unknown. In this chapter, the results from experimental study on response of the jacket model for different upending stages under regular waves are discussed.