Scour Development Around Bucket Foundations

A wind turbine foundation design without scour protection, especially for wind turbines in the North Sea, is a sensitive topic for most offshore developers. However, recent research shows that this concept is realistic if there is extended comprehension of the scour and backfill phenomena. The present paper shows the comparative results for monopile and bucket foundations through the use of experimental analysis and field scour surveys of bucket foundations installed offshore. The main findings show that the bucket foundation is a candidate for a design without scour protection that behaves like scour-protected monopiles in a variety of environmental conditions.