Seaway Heavy Lifting (SHL) and IHC IQIP have partnered for the supply of equipment to the 588MW Beatrice offshore wind farm to be developed off the coast in Scotland.
The Beatrice project includes the largest order in the history of IHC IQIP (and that of its former business units, IHC Hydrohammer and IHC Handling Systems).
The Beatrice offshore wind farm will comprise 84 wind turbines, each with a 154m diameter rotor capable of generating 7MW of power. All turbines will be founded on pre-piled jacket substructures, which will be installed at a water depth up to 55m. Design, engineering, fabrication and installation of the substructures will be managed by SHL.
Cooperation in engineering, equipment selection and installation methodology
The cooperation on this project has resulted in improving existing equipment concepts having a positive impact on the installation methodology for both foundation piles and jackets.
SHL will use the following equipment from or developed together with IHC IQIP: Jacket Pile Grippers (JPG), the Hydrohammer S-2500 with two specially designed hammer sleeves and an internal lifting tool (ILT) 1,200t, 60-96”.
IHC IQIP’s JPGs are welded to the jacket structure at the jacket fabrication sites. For a total of 84 jackets to be fabricated in total 336 JPGs will be delivered and commissioned.
Driven by high demands from relevant design codes regarding early age cycling of grout connections JPGs will prevent relative displacement between jacket structure and pre-installed piles during grouting and curing.
Production of the JPGs at IHC IQIP’s yard in Sliedrecht has already commenced and delivery of JPG’s to the jacket fabrication yards is started with last delivery scheduled for early 2018. The jackets will be produced by Smulders, Bladt and BiFab.
IHC IQIP’s Hydrohammer S-2500 and its specially designed hammer sleeves is suitable for driving piles up to a minimum stick-up height of 2m.
This newly designed sleeves – combined with the retractable spacers inside the sleeves of the pre piling template – is a design developed to drive piles without using a large follower resulting in a significant reduction in required deck storage space and handling of heavy equipment.
The IHC IQIP’s internal lifting tool (ILT) 1,200t, 60-96” can be used for several activities during installation. It will be utilized for deploying and recovery of the pre-piling template and subsequently for stabbing of the individual piles into the sleeves of the pre-piling template. At a later phase the same ILT will be used for jacket installation.
A pre-piling template will be used to install piles in the correct location, at the appropriate inclination and stick-up height prior to installing the jacket. SHL and IQIP jointly developed pre-piling template up to the basic design level. IHC IQIP provided the solution to avoid the use of followers by incorporating spacers in the template.
These can be retracted during pile-driving to create enough space for the hammer and sleeve ensuring no follower is required. This improved both efficiency and accuracy of the pile installation process significantly. The detailed design, procurement and fabrication has been done by SHL.
SHL and IHC IQIP are confident that by cooperating on the Beatrice offshore wind farm, they will contribute to creating a safe and secure installation process and make this project a success.