Study of Hard and Soft Countermeasures for Scour Protection of the Jacket-Type Offshore Wind Turbine Foundation

Physical model tests with the scale of 1:36 are carried out in the Near-Shore Wave Basin (NSWB) at Tainan Hydraulics Laboratory (THL) with the jacket-type offshore wind turbine foundation (jacket-type foundation) and the combination of hard or soft scour protection in the test area. Scouring around the jacket-type foundation exposed to wave and current was conducted in the NSWB with a mobile bed experiment. Two locations (a water depth of 12 m and 16 m) of the foundations are separately simulated in this study. Based on the analysis from the former NSWB experimental results, one traditional hard scour protection usually used in Taiwan with four layers around the foundation is proposed for the mitigation of scouring. From the experimental results, a four-layer scour protection is tested and found to be effective in preventing scouring around the jacket-type foundation. Besides the hard scour protection countermeasure, the scour protection effect of an integrated offshore wind turbine and cage net aquaculture facility as a soft countermeasure for scour protection of the jacket-type foundation is further evaluated in this study. OPEN ACCESS J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2014, 2 552 Meanwhile, a detailed analysis for stakeholders’ opinions on the integration of offshore wind farms and coastal aquaculture is also considered to obtain important experience and knowledge; and furthermore, to understand the real demand for adjusting the feasibility of this soft countermeasure.