Webinar Session Program
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8:30AM-8:40AM CDT |
Welcome & Introduction
Zack Westgate/Xiaoyan Long - UMass/Fugro |
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8:40AM-9:00AM CDT |
Overview of Floating Wind Outlook in the US
Dan O’Connell - BOEM
In the ten years that I have been with BOEM, we have seen many offshore wind leases awarded, several projects permitted and some now under construction. . These leased Wind Energy Areas (WEAs) generally have water depths less than 60 meters thus favorable for fixed bottom foundations. As of today BOEM has awarded leases in deeper waters off California and will have upcoming deep water lease auctions in the Gulf of Maine, Oregon and the mid Atlantic. BOEM has been working to prepare for floating wind turbines expected to be proposed in these new lease areas. This current presentation provides a brief update on the status of these deep water wind energy leases, plus new regulations and guidance that may apply to deep water conditions. Also I will discuss relevant BOEM funded studies and our participation in floating wind standards and other floating wind study efforts.
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9:00AM-9:20AM CDT |
Structures and Loads
Sanjay Arwade - UMassA
The proper design of anchoring and mooring systems requires accurate determination of design loads. This presentation describes some critical aspects of anchor loads generated by environmental conditions on floating OSW platforms. Catenary and taut systems are described and the shared, or multiline, anchor concept is also introduced. Special attention is paid to the cyclic content of the loading time histories, variability in direction, and relative horizontal and vertical components of the anchor load.
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9:20AM-9:40AM CDT |
Foundation Anchors
Charles Aubeny - AMU
Up to 80% of offshore wind power development worldwide is expected to take place in water depths too deep for fixed-bottom structures; floating offshore wind turbines will ultimately comprise a major portion of wind power development. Anchorage for these floating structures is important due the direct cost of the anchors as well as the additional factors, such as demand on port facilities supporting wind farm construction, supply chains, and construction schedules. This presentation provides a brief overview of anchor systems that may be considered for maintaining station for floating offshore wind structures, as well as considerations for selection of an anchor type most appropriate to the mooring system and seabed soil conditions under consideration. Additional considerations, such as cost, efficiency, and installation time, are also addressed.
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9:40AM-10:00AM CDT |
Geohazard US Coasts
Rodolfo Sancio - Geosyntec
In late 2023, two wind energy areas offshore California were leased to five floating wind developers. As field development planning progresses, developers are likely to be sitting and designing foundations and cable routes that carefully and appropriately consider the geological hazards that may affect these facilities. Geohazards include upwelling gas and water that leads to seafloor pockmarks, earthquake induced strong ground shaking that can cause substantial strength reduction of seafloor soils (e.g., liquefaction), faults that may cause displacements across their trace, slumps and slides that may be induced by natural deposition or earthquakes and the ensuing debris flows and turbidity currents that may damage facilities. In this presentation, Dr. Sancio will discuss the challenges that such geohazards present to field development and cable routing for offshore US projects.
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10:00AM-10:20AM CDT |
Geotech US Coasts
Proserpine Peralta - Fugro
Site conditions, technology development and supply chain evolution are the key drivers of cost for offshore wind development. As the distance from the shore and water depth increases, i.e. as the offshore wind turbine concept transitions from fixed to floating, the more expensive is the cost of development. In addition, complex site and soil conditions in deep water areas lead to higher costs due to increased foundation risks and foundation sizes. This presentation will give an overview of the site conditions for floating offshore wind development in deep water areas in the U.S. and the challenges they present for floating offshore wind turbine anchor foundation design, and discuss how deep water surveys (geophysical and geotechnical) can reduce foundation risks and development cost for floating wind farms. |
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10:20AM-10:55AM CDT |
Panel Q&A Session
Xiaoyan Long - Fugro
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10:55AM-11:00AM CDT |
Closing Remarks
Andrew Hill - BP
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Presenters
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Daniel P. O’Connell, P.E., G.E.
Dan O’Connell is the Geotechnical Engineer with Office of Renewable Energy Programs. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Sterling, VA, since 2013. He has a degree in Civil Engineering from Brown University and is a Registered Professional Engineer in several states, and a Registered Geotechnical Engineer in California. Prior to joining BOEM he had 38 years of experience as a Geotechnical Engineering consultant in New England, California, and the Mid Atlantic. He is currently responsible for reviewing geotechnical investigations, engineering studies and plans for offshore renewable energy projects on the US Outer Continental Shelf; updating federal regulations and standards, and managing research activities.
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Dr. Sanjay R. Arwade
Sanjay R. Arwade is a Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and Associate Director of the Wind Energy Center. He studied structural engineering and mechanics at Princeton and Cornell and works primarily in areas of probabilistic mechanics, offshore engineering, and reliability. His work has been funded by the US National Science Foundation, BOEM, the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, and industry.
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Charles Aubeny
Charles Aubeny is a professor of civil engineering at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. He specializes in geotechnical engineering and has 25 years of experience in foundations and anchors for offshore energy structures, both traditional oil-gas facilities and, since 2011 with fixed and floating structures for renewable energy. His research and publication record has a large focus on the performance of all types of anchors for floating energy structures, including piles, suction caissons, and drag embedded plate anchors. His research sponsors have included the National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research, Minerals Management Service, BP America, Shell Global Solutions, Delmar, and ABS Consulting. He is a recipient of the ASCE Middlebrooks Award is a Fellow in the American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Dr. Rodolfo Sancio
Dr. Rodolfo Sancio is a Senior Principal geotechnical engineer with Geosyntec Consultants in Houston, Texas. In 1995, he received his undergraduate civil engineering degree from the Universidad Catolica Andres Bello in Caracas, Venezuela, and went on to receive his MS and PhD degrees in geotechnical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1999 and 2003. Rodolfo has been a professional engineer in Texas since 2006 and is licensed to practice in ten other US states. Rodolfo has more than 25 years of geotechnical practical experience, including in onshore and offshore geotechnical characterization for geohazards and foundations. For the last 20 years, he has focused on addressing onshore and offshore geotechnical engineering issues for the energy industry. Rodolfo’s work on geohazards spans seismic hazard characterization, characterization and mitigation of soil liquefaction, impact of ice gouging on buried pipelines, and characterization and risk mitigation of onshore and submarine slides on pipelines. He has authored or coauthored more than 30 publications on geotechnical characterization techniques, the response of fine-grained soils to cyclic loading, the effects of geohazards on seafloor structures, and case histories. He was the lead author of the 2018 PRCI guidance document, “Guidelines for Management of Geohazards Affecting the Engineering and Construction of New Oil and Natural Gas Pipelines.” Rodolfo is treasurer of the United States branch of SUT.
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Dr Proserpine Peralta
Ms Peralta has a Doctorate in geotechnical engineering from Leibniz University in Hannover, Germany and has over 15 years of research and work experience on site characterization and foundation design for fixed and floating offshore wind turbines. Dr. Peralta’s range of experience and expertise includes management and consultancy on onshore and offshore geotechnical site investigations; developing specifications for dynamic and cyclic soil tests for offshore foundation design; offshore foundation installation; and advanced foundation engineering for monopiles, GBS, piles, suction buckets, and anchors. Her projects include fixed and floating offshore wind farm developments in the US, Germany, Belgium, France, and the Netherlands. She is currently the engineering manager for offshore wind foundation design in Fugro U.S.. |
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Andrew Hill
Andy W. Hill is the Engineering Technical Authority for Marine Geohazards for BP. He is currently Chair of the OSIG Houston Committee, having been the founder of the committee in 2007. He has been a member of the UK equivalent committee since 1990. He was made a Fellow of the SUT in 2020. He has 38 years of experience in Geophysical Site Investigation, the last 32 with BP. In 1997 he championed the introduction of AUVs into deep water site investigation triggering a step change in deliver after their introduction in 2000-01. He has worked on projects globally and introduced or championed some of the most significant developments in geophysical site investigation. He has published widely on the subject and been director or contributor to numerous industry documents. |
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Dr. Xiaoyan Long
Xiaoyan is the principal consultancy and technical authority for Fugro USA Marine, Inc. in Houston, TX. She has over 15 years' consultancy experience specializing in marine site characterization, foundation design, well geotechnical and interdisciplinary geo-hazard assessment. Xiaoyan obtained her master degree from Tongji university in China and the Doctoral degree of Philosophy from Texas A& M university in College Station, TX. She has published over 30 technical papers and is serving on the SUT-US executive branch committee and SUT-US OSIG technical committee. |
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Dr. Zack Westgate
Zack is an Associate Professor of Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a registered professional civil engineer with over 15 years of experience consulting in the offshore energy sector, currently as a Principal Engineer with the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute. He has published over 50 technical papers on topics relating to site characterization, soil mechanics, offshore foundation engineering, pipeline/riser geotechnics, and most recently on the geotechnical behavior of glauconite sands. He is an active member of the SUT Offshore Site Investigations and Geotechnics committee (Chair-Elect), the ACP Offshore Wind Standards Working Group 4: Geophysics and Geotechnics, the ISSMGE Technical Committee 209: Offshore Geotechnics, and the API RG7 / ISO TP6 Task Group on Risers, Pipelines and Conductors. |
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