The grouting of the last of the 80 foundations of the unique offshore wind farm BARD Offshore 1 has recently been completed by ITW Densit in the German Bight, North Sea.
This pioneering German wind farm built in German waters covers around 60 square kilometres and has a production capacity of 400 MW, which is equivalent to the power needs of more than 400,000 households. That makes BARD Offshore 1 by far the largest offshore wind farm in Germany.
Based on its philosophy of avoiding dependency on a wide range of suppliers, BARD has mastered most of the operation including only a few external companies during the whole project, and ITW Densit was chosen as one of these companies. This was also the first case where ITW Densit entered into a frame agreement with a major offshore company.
Throughout the project, ITW Densit grouted 240 pile/sleeve connections for BARD’s patented tripile foundations, connecting the 3.35m -Ø piles and the connecting crosspieces according to the certified design. For this purpose ITW Densit has used its UHPC material Ducorit® S5. Due to the high fatigue resistance properties of Ducorit® and due to its ability to quickly develop strength and bond with steel, there was no need for using bolting and welding, as Ducorit® connections can handle all stresses. Moreover, the fast installation and curing time of Ducorit® allowed the installation vessel to avoid waiting time, and to achieve significant savings.
Experienced supervisors from ITW Densit carried out mixing and pumping operations with the use of state of the art equipment. Moreover, all the technical support and – activities connected with the German approval process (Z.i.E.) in relation to grouting were also carried out in cooperation with ITW Densit’s professionals.
[mappress]
Press release, September 10, 2013; Image: bard-offshore