Welcome to the Vibro Lifting Technology
FAQ
We’re here
to help
Pile runs
With the monopiles becoming bigger and the geographically use of monopiles growing as well, more locations with risk of pile run are met. Particularly locations with seismic activity seem to carry that risk. In China and Taiwan these risks have already shown that they should be taken seriously and in parts of US waters and even in the North Sea these risks should not be underestimated. The effects of a pile run can be severe in terms of likely damage to the vessel, pile and equipment as well as the likelihood of the monopile being out of installation tolerance.
THE SOLUTION
The CAPE VLT is physically connected to the pile and held by the crane and can therefore never be subject to a pile run. The worst that could happen is that the full weight of the pile and the CAPE VLT are hanging in the crane.
When installing in areas with risk of pile run, the installation methodology is such that most of the weight of the pile and the CAPE VLT are held in the crane, so only a transfer of a small part to the crane could occur instead of a shock load as in case of using an impact hammer, where the pile could also run uncontrollably and out of tolerance.
Noise
The use of large impact hammers has a major downside, namely that they are very noisy and therefore damaging for the underwater wildlife. The noise emissions for impact driving increase as the piles become bigger. As these emissions are strictly regulated in many countries it is becoming increasingly more difficult to stay within the set limits.
Millions of Euro’s are being spent on Offshore Wind Farm projects in order to try and reduce the noise levels. Examples of mitigation measures are: bubble curtains, Hydro Dampers, Coverdams and other noise mitigation systems, used quite often in combination of them. Besides the huge costs involved these noise mitigation measures, they also add risk of stopping the works due to malfunctioning (parts) of the mitigation system, plus most systems require a lot of power to operate, increasing the environmental impact. The larger water depths decrease the effectiveness of the air bubble curtains due to the air bubbles drifting away with current and waves.
THE SOLUTION
Due to the inherently different method of driving the pile (reducing soils resistance and the pile penetrating by gravity rather than by hard blows) the noise emitted is far less than that of an impact hammer. Also the noise levels of a vibro are not directly related to the diameter of the pile, so XXL monopiles don’t automatically result in much higher noise emissions with vibro driving and it is expected that even with the large XXL monopiles that the noise levels will remain below the legally set levels.
Monopile installation
The offshore wind industry is growing and with wind farms moving into ever in deeper waters and with more powerful turbines, the size of monopiles is constantly increasing substantially. Installing these large diameter piles can be a challenge due to their size and large weight and requires powerful and reliable tools. The CAPE VLT is ready to install even the largest monopiles in the market at the moment and for the foreseeable future.
Pin/jacket pile installation
Large monopiles are currently dominating the offshore wind market, but as the shift to deeper water and larger turbines continues, jackets and tripods may be chosen more often as foundation type. For the installation of these foundations CAPE Holland can contribute its fast experiences and proven technology from the oil and gas market, but also from the first Offshore Wind Farm projects it has been working on.
Anchor pile installation
Anchor piles have been around for a long time to securely hold offshore floaters in place for the 0il and gas industry. Compared to other anchoring solutions, such as drag embedded anchors, piles bring various benefits as they can transfer high loads not only horizontally, but also vertically and in multiple directions. That allows mooring of any floating structure design, such as Semi-Subs, SPARs, FPSOs and TLPs with the smallest footprint possible and therefore also ideal for floating structures for renewable energy.
Decommissioning
The vibro lifting technology has been proven as an ideal way for pile extraction. Just think of almost any large project on land where sheet piles are being used to create lateral support to be able to excavate areas for construction works. Towards the end of the project, which sometimes takes several years, sheet piles are being removed with a vibro hammer in most cases. The same can be done for offshore piles. CAPE Holland has proved this capability for large diameter piles offshore on a number of projects.
Answer here…
Answer here…
TELL US
ABOUT YOUR
CHALLENGE
Contact our expert team to find out more about how we can support you with your next pile installation or decommissioning project.