HR Wallingford is carrying out physical modelling to test the scour development and the performance of a frond mat scour protection system to protect the jacket piles for the East Anglia One (EA ONE) offshore wind farm.
ScottishPower Renewables (SPR), the developer of the EA ONE, and Seabed Scour Control Systems (SSCS) visited the HR Wallingford’s Fast Flow facility where the tests are being carried out.
Initial tests, undertaken at a scale of 1:2, are some of the largest scour tests ever undertaken in a laboratory, HR Wallingford noted.
A series of three full tidal cycles are being simulated to allow the mats to accumulate sediment. Storm conditions are also being run, in which a 1:1 year, 1:10 year, and 1:50 year storms are simulated.
Samantha Dawson , business development manager Renewables, at HR Wallingford, said: ”At HR Wallingford we have an active programme of research in the prediction and analysis of scour around marine structures, with world class modelling facilities, including the Fast Flow Facility. This gives us a controlled environment in which to evaluate and select the best-performing scour protection systems for a specific site, like EA ONE, and the conditions in which it operates.”