The geotechnical team consists of engineers who have many years of experience within the offshore industry and possess both excellent design and analytical skills combined with direct experience of working offshore.

The geotechnical services we offer:

Offshore Site Investigations

  • OWC are very experienced at offshore wind farm Site Investigation (SI) management, with staff who have managed many SIs over the last 10 years.
  • Running tender competitions, scoping and contract management, project management, data interpretation & report, soil models for foundation/cable design, provision of client representatives.
  • Use of live SI methodology tool (i.e. calculating the length of borehole required as the ground information is gathered, ensuring boreholes are economically sized) for which we were finalists at the Ground Engineering 2015 awards.

Geotechnical Design

  • Our team have developed ground models for the world’s largest and most complicated offshore wind farm
  • Ground Modelling & Geotechnical Interpretation: Identify engineering units, assess ground behaviour, develop geotechnical design parameters, development of design soil models, identify ground risks and assess ground variability.

Foundation Design and Installation Analysis

  • Our geotechnical engineers have designed over 500 offshore wind farm foundations.
  • Foundation Design:
    • The Foundation Design includes the selection of geotechnical parameters, development of design soil models and finite element
    • We have designed monopiles, jacket piles, gravity bases, mat foundations, ground anchors and suction caissons.
  • Foundation Installation Analysis include:
    • Pile driveability assessments, Site supervision during foundation installation, Pile driving induced fatigue analysis, seabed preparation advice, mud mat design

Cable Route Analysis and Planning

We have wide ranging experience in the design and management of cable routes:

  • We ensure the effective protection of the cable system throughout its design life with our in-house team of cable experts and geotechnical specialists. Including review information such as SI, bathymetry, seabed mobility and other hazards to prepare cable burial risk assessments (CBRA) and assess the expected performance of available installation tools.

Leg Penetration Analyses

  • Extensive experience – world-wide in jack-up leg penetration prediction, using latest codes and standards, considering layered soils and identifying risks as rapid leg penetration, punch through and scour. These are then used for Site-Specific Assessments.