Goal: Design of a hinge point for upending foundation piles for offshore wind turbines. The piles are stored on the deck in three layers and have to be upended directly from their storage position. This way no extra handling of foundation piles is needed during the offshore operation.
Result: The resulting basic design is called Tailing Frame. It consists of a steel construction on two skid beams. The hinging element of the Tailing Frame has the shape of a hook. This hook can be placed on any of the piles in the pile storage. Positioning of the hook is done by means of several hydraulic functions. Due to pile tolerances the exact position of the piles in the storage is unknown. The hook is positioned manually by means of remote controls. Platforms in the tailing frame construction allow the operator to get close to the hook during positioning. The hinge point of the hook allows the pile to move out of the upending plane by a few degrees during upending.
The Tailing Frame can also be used for down-ending a pile in case the offshore operation is for some reason aborted.
Client: IHC IQIP
Year: 2015
