A speargun-based invention by a PhD student promises could time and money in the design of offshore wind farms, according to RMIT University.
Results on tests of Junlin Rong’s device published in the Canadian Geotechnical Journal show the “speargun projectile penetrometer” (SPP) could be twice as effective as currently-used lightweight free-fall soil testers, and much more cost-effective than heavy-duty probes.
The two established ways of testing seabed soil are either less-suited to sandy seabeds in shallower waters or highly expensive at up to $200,000 per day.
“In laboratory environments, the device showed considerably greater penetration potential compared to free-falling probes on soil. Notably, in high-density sandy material, the penetration depth was twice that of previously reported values achieved by freely falling probes,” said Rong, the study’s lead author, in a statement on Wednesday.
“This breakthrough technique has the potential to revolutionise site investigations for wind farm projects, offering significant time and cost savings while outperforming the embedment achieved by other dynamic penetrometers.”
The SPP’s probes can be retrieved and reused after data collection, minimising disturbance to the seabed, and the device can be retrofitted to current devices “with minimal investment.”
According to RMIT Professor of Geotechnical Engineering Majid Nazem, trials had achieved “considerable embedment depth” in dense sand and the device was now ready to be trialled with industrial partners.
Picture: credit RMIT University