Foundation Reinforcement for Wind Turbines

A reinforcement structure for offshore wind turbine foundations in deep water to improve load-bearing capacity. The structure involves encasing the outer perimeter of the single pile foundation with a floating annular structure below the waterline. Anchor chains connect the floating structure to anchors buried in the seabed. This creates a pre-tensioned overall structure that provides additional horizontal restoring force when the foundation deforms or tilts. It constrains displacement and increases horizontal bearing capacity, allowing deeper water depths or higher turbine loads.

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A large diameter, thin-walled single pile foundation for offshore wind turbines that provides improved strength, stiffness, stability, fatigue resistance, and corrosion resistance compared to traditional steel pipe piles. The foundation consists of steel pile shoes, prefabricated UHPC (ultra high performance concrete) pipe piles, and flanges connected using prestressed steel strands and bolts. This allows using UHPC, which has superior properties compared to regular concrete, for the majority of the foundation where strength and durability are critical. The steel shoes and flanges at the ends provide transition connections to the turbine tower. The prestressing provides additional load transfer and prevents cracking.

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Tension-compression-shear foundation design for wind turbine wheel sets that provides improved resistance to wind loads while reducing foundation size and costs compared to traditional piled foundations. The design involves using a truncated cone-shaped concrete foundation with outer ring piles, inner ring piles, and tie rods. The outer ring piles resist tension and shear forces from wind loads, while the inner ring piles support the wheel weight in compression. The arrangement and density of the piles is optimized based on wheel weight, wind speed, and site geology. A buried shear-resistant member provides additional protection. This foundation configuration allows efficient transfer of forces from the wheel to the ground while mitigating wind loads.

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Pipe pile wind turbine foundation design and construction method for desert areas with poor soil conditions. The foundation consists of buried prestressed pipe piles with a mattress layer on top, followed by pouring a foundation cushion. This allows the foundation to be built entirely within the soft, sandy soil without needing deeper piles. The mattress prevents sand infiltration and stabilizes the piles. The cushion provides a solid base for the wind turbine tower.

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A hollow wind turbine foundation design to reduce concrete usage and construction time while mitigating quality issues like cracking. The foundation has a concrete cushion surrounded by a hollow structure with spoke-like radiating beams connecting an outer ring beam to the central column. This hollow foundation shape reduces surface area compared to traditional circular foundations. It also uses elastic vibration-absorbing components in the foundation piles to dampen tower vibrations.

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Offshore wind foundation suitable for shallow overburden layers that improves bearing capacity, stability and reduces costs compared to deep socket foundations. The foundation has a single pile with a gravity disc attached. Surrounding the disc are multiple screw piles. The screw piles are connected to the disc and pile to form an integrated structure. This configuration provides improved horizontal, vertical and bending resistance without needing deep rock sockets. The gravity disc and screw piles increase rigidity and load capacity. The integrated structure also reduces pile displacement and bending moments.

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Reinforcement method for extending the life of offshore wind turbine foundations without removing and replacing them. The method involves driving a new reinforced pile inside the existing pile using a grouting pipeline. As the new pile is driven, soil is squeezed into the pipeline. This soil is then grouted to reinforce the existing pile. The new pile is then removed, leaving the reinforced existing pile behind. The grouted soil provides additional load bearing capacity to extend the life of the foundation.

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Reducing the size and cost of wind turbine foundations by using a non-full rigid contact prestressed ground anchor type reinforced concrete foundation structure. The foundation has a reduced footprint compared to traditional foundations, as it uses a modified shape and prestressed ground anchors to transfer the load directly to the ground. This reduces the amount of concrete and steel required. The prestressed ground anchors have a non-full rigid contact with the ground to allow some movement and reduce forces on the anchors.

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Post-tensioning system for wind turbine foundations that improves the strength and durability of the concrete foundation compared to traditional designs. The system uses rod anchors, anchor rods, post-tensioning strands, and strand anchors. The anchor rods connect the hub to the bottom of the foundation, while the post-tensioning strands extend through the hub and are anchored at the perimeter. This transfers the tower load through the center of the foundation, reducing stress concentrations and conflicts between anchor rods and steel reinforcement.

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Reinforcement and correction method for offshore wind turbine foundations to mitigate issues like cumulative displacement and scour erosion. The reinforcement involves adding a socket around the wind turbine pile foundation that has steel frames and prefabricated piles. These are connected by anchor cables. The composite foundation formed by injecting cement into the soil around the pile also provides reinforcement. This setup strengthens the foundation and prevents displacement and scour erosion during wind turbine operation.

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Rock-socketed single pile foundation for seabed offshore wind turbines that allows reliable and stable application of single pile foundations in rock foundation seabeds. The foundation involves sinking a steel pipe pile into the rock base and then drilling a hole through the rock around the pile. An inner casing is inserted into the drilled hole and grouted. This creates a socketed connection between the pile and rock. The drilling and grouting steps ensure the foundation verticality and stability in variable rock conditions.

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A foundation design for wind turbines that reduces size and cost compared to conventional foundations. The foundation has a platform connected to the tower and multiple piles surrounding it. The piles have spiral discs on the outer shaft that decrease in diameter away from the platform. The spiral discs allow the piles to screw into the ground, providing improved bearing capacity and overturning resistance compared to conventional piles. This eliminates the need for large concrete foundations, reducing footprint and cost.

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Vibratory cementing pile reinforced single pile foundation for offshore wind turbines in soft soil areas. The foundation has vibratory cementing piles surrounding the main pile driven into the seabed. The cementing piles have decreasing strength from inner to outer rings. The piles and soil between form a composite foundation with increased bearing capacity. The cementing process involves vibratory punching gravel and cement into the piles. This improves horizontal resistance, reduces pile deformation, and prevents soil displacement. A riprap layer on top completes the foundation.

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An airfoil pile foundation design for wind turbines in shallow soft clay seabeds that reduces material consumption compared to conventional single piles. The foundation has multiple rectangular wing plates connected to a central steel pipe pile. The wings and pipe are perpendicular to the wind direction. This configuration transfers load horizontally, improving stability and stiffness compared to a single pile. It allows using shorter, thinner piles in soft clay seabeds, reducing construction costs.

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A wind turbine comprises a pitch bearing with variable thickness reinforcing plates along its circumference to reduce stress concentration and optimize the design for varying loads. The pitch bearing connects the turbine blades to the hub and pitches the blades. The reinforcing plates are bolted onto the bearing rings. The plates gradually thicken from the ends toward the center in a wedge shape. This provides additional strength only where needed.

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A construction method for wind turbine foundations in soft seabed that reduces costs and installation difficulties compared to traditional single pile foundations. The method involves using an airfoil-shaped foundation with wings attached to the pile. The wings increase the bearing capacity and stiffness of the foundation by engaging and deforming the surrounding soft seabed. This allows smaller diameter and shorter pile lengths compared to conventional single piles for the same load. The wings also facilitate installation since they can be embedded in the seabed without damaging the pile head.

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Reducing the footprint of wind turbine foundations while maintaining stability on soft ground. It uses composite pile foundations with buried prefabricated piles, shallow buried fan foundations, and anchor rods between them. The piles provide load bearing and anchoring, while the shallow foundations support the tower. A mattress between the foundations covers the pile-foundation interface. This allows reducing foundation area compared to traditional deep foundations.

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A foundation design for large megawatt wind turbines that reduces costs and improves stability compared to conventional foundations. The foundation has a base plate with a central pillar embedded in it. Transverse piles are inserted into the base plate, with one end contacting the pillar and the other end exposed outside the plate. The piles project downward from the pillar like rays. This configuration provides lateral support for the pillar while allowing the base plate to be smaller compared to a traditional square foundation. It also concentrates forces on the thicker pillar section instead of the outer base plate edges.

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Cast-in-place concrete box foundation for onshore wind turbines that reduces material usage and cost compared to traditional foundations. The box foundation has a large internal cavity filled with backfill soil instead of concrete. Embedded parts and anchor cages are placed in the column. This allows using excavated soil as a weight instead of concrete, reducing foundation volume and cost. The soil-filled cavity provides good seismic performance and energy dissipation. The upper wind turbine tower connects to the column using prestressed anchors.

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Root stump-inspired foundation design for offshore wind turbines that reduces cost and improves stability compared to conventional single pile foundations. The root stump foundation has a tree-like root structure reinforced with grout pipes. The turbine tower connects to a shorter pile driven into the ground. Multiple root-stump sections extend from the pile and have grout holes. This design provides enhanced soil reinforcement and stiffness compared to a single long pile, reducing foundation size and cost. The shorter pile also reduces fabrication and installation time and cost. The root stumps also allow for smaller pile diameter and shorter tower connection. The grout pipes are pre-embedded in the pile and extend into the soil for reinforcement.

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Device to reinforce the foundation of an onshore wind turbine tower root without damaging the original foundation or anchor bolts. The reinforcement has an annular ring anchor that surrounds the tower root at intervals. Longitudinal bars connect the ring anchor to the outer foundation. Radial bars extend from the ring anchor to the foundation top, forming a circular array. This configuration reinforces the foundation without disturbing the tower root or anchor bolts.

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Pre-tensioned pile-anchor combination foundation for shallow overburden seabeds in offshore wind turbines. The foundation has a vertical pile buried in shallow soil and rock, with horizontal anchors connecting to the pile. This provides vertical load support from the soil and rock friction, and horizontal load support from the anchors. The anchors are tensioned to balance forces. This avoids deep rock sockets for shallow soil conditions. The foundation top connects to the wind turbine tower.

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Wind turbine foundation reinforcement structure that prevents cracking and hole formation in concrete foundations. The structure involves filling gaps between the foundation and surrounding steel plate with a material like epoxy resin, then grouting between the steel plate and foundation. This provides an integral reinforcement that applies pressure in all directions to the concrete foundation to prevent cracks. The steel plate shape is customized to match the foundation contour. Anchor rods are embedded in the foundation to secure the steel plate.

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A low-cost, high-strength, and stable wind turbine support structure that reduces oscillations and can be used in more locations. The structure uses tensioned single wires rather than strands or cables. This provides stability in wind and seismic events without the need for large towers or additional land for guy cables. The tensioned wires support the turbine mast and absorb forces.

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A combined foundation structure for offshore wind turbines that improves the lateral stiffness and seismic performance compared to single pile foundations. The combined foundation uses a main pile, auxiliary piles around it, and a connecting steel ring with screw piles to support the main pile. This creates a whole force-bearing system that limits horizontal shaking of the main pile. The combined foundation is designed to be used in offshore wind turbines and platforms by distributing multiple combined foundations at sea level with a cap on top. The screw piles connect the ring to the seabed.

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Offshore wind foundation design to reduce cost and improve stability by reinforcing the soft seabed around the foundation piles. The foundation has an external conduit around the pile that can be filled with grout to reinforce the nearby seabed. This prevents scouring around the foundation during tidal currents by adding strength to the soft seabed. The grout can be repeatedly injected into the seabed through the conduit to improve reinforcement efficiency.

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Steel sheet pile cylindrical foundation for wind turbine towers that provides a stable and cost-effective solution for wind power projects. The foundation uses a cylindrical structure made of interlocking steel sheet piles filled with grout. This allows reducing the size and engineering volume compared to conventional foundations. The sheet pile cylinder is connected to the tower base and cap. The steel piles provide vertical bearing and horizontal stability, while the grout fills provide passive earth pressure resistance. This eliminates the need for deep excavations and disturbance of the soil.

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A construction method for wind turbine foundations that addresses the issue of excessive bending moments and insufficient horizontal bearing capacity in deep water offshore wind turbines. The method involves using a reinforced foundation design that allows the foundation to be driven deeper into the seabed. The reinforced foundation consists of a main support column, reinforcement cylinders attached to the column, and an adapter connecting the column to the turbine tower. The cylinders are inserted into the seabed to a predetermined depth. This provides additional bearing capacity and prevents excessive bending moments. The cylinders are connected by a reinforcing cone protruding from the outer wall and a rib plate inside. The adapter allows the cylinders to be spaced around the column. The foundation is sunk in stages with grouting between the cylinders and the seabed. The reinforced foundation design enables deeper penetration into the se

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Underground reinforcement embedded part for wind farm construction that improves stability of wind turbine foundations. The part consists of a base buried in the foundation, with a fastening assembly extending into the ground. The assembly has a cylinder with extrusion rods that push into the soil. The cylinder compresses the soil around the base, increasing stability. The rods lock in place to prevent movement. This underground reinforcement provides a tighter connection between the base and ground compared to surface mounting, reducing turbine tilting and improving overall stability.

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An inclined pile foundation for offshore deepwater wind farms that mitigates stability issues when encountering weak, weathered rock layers. The foundation has an inclined pile that passes through the weak rock layer into the bearing layer below. A grouted pile bottom seals the base. Surrounding the inclined pile are cement-mixed vertical piles that interlock with the grouted base to form a composite reinforcement. This reinforces the connection between the pile and surrounding soil, increasing friction and stability in weak rock layers.

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A foundation design for shallow overburden seabeds that allows installing offshore wind turbines in areas with soft soil and shallow bedrock. The foundation combines a pile with anchors instead of relying solely on a deep rock-socketed pile. The pile is embedded in the soft soil with its bottom touching the bedrock. Anchor rods are fixed to the pile with tension devices. The anchors are driven into the bedrock to provide horizontal load balance and prevent tilting. This allows using shorter, shallower piles and avoids the difficulty and cost of rock-socketed piles in soft soil.

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A new type of cylindrical offshore wind turbine foundation that provides improved resistance to lateral loads and overturning forces compared to conventional cylindrical foundations. The foundation has a single pile with a composite wing attached. The wing extends laterally from the cylindrical body to provide additional stability against horizontal loads like waves and currents. This reduces the need for larger, more expensive foundations in complex marine environments. The wing is attached to the pile using a flange and grouted connection.

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Offshore wind power foundation with improved stability and anti-scouring capability to prevent tilting and collapse of offshore wind turbines. The foundation consists of a main pile buried in the seabed, a reinforced foundation connected to the main pile's outer surface, and an auxiliary pile that fits into openings in the reinforced foundation. The reinforced foundation prevents tilting of the main pile, and the auxiliary pile interacts with the seabed and reinforced foundation to further enhance stability. This composite foundation provides stronger bearing capacity, anti-scouring resistance, and anti-tilting ability compared to a single pile foundation.

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A method to strengthen the seabed around offshore wind turbine foundations to improve their stability and reduce scouring. The method involves injecting cement grout into the soft seabed near the foundation through a conduit extending from the foundation. This reinforces the surrounding soil and prevents scouring around the foundation. The conduit can also dissipate tidal current energy, reducing erosion. The grout injection can be repeated as needed to prevent clogging.

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Double-pile telescopic foundation for offshore wind turbines that improves fatigue performance and allows deeper water installation compared to single-pile foundations. The double-pile foundation consists of an inner first steel pipe pile with a tapered bottom and an outer second steel pipe pile that fits inside the first pile. Grouting ports connect the piles and are filled with slurry to create an integrated structure. This enhances flexural rigidity and strengthens the weak section of the foundation. Grouting devices on the outer wall of the first pile facilitate installation and grouting of the connection section.

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Gravity foundation for offshore wind turbines in soft soil areas using cemented gravel piles to strengthen the foundation. The foundation consists of a composite arrangement of cemented gravel piles, structured cemented gravel piles, and gravel piles. The piles are arranged in a staggered pattern to form the composite foundation. The cemented gravel piles are surrounded by gravel piles, and the gravel piles are surrounded by at least one of the cemented gravel piles or structured cemented gravel piles. The composite foundation provides improved bearing capacity in soft soil compared to single piles or pile jackets. The cemented gravel piles are formed by compacting crushed stone with underwater self-compacting cementitious material.

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A self-balancing wind power generator foundation for deserts that can withstand strong winds, sandstorms, and burial. The foundation has a reinforced pile foundation inside a pit, with unfolding chutes and a rotating plate to stabilize the pile. The tower tube has a buffer assembly with a sliding U-shaped block, ropes, and a ball to absorb tower movement. A damping platform with an arc frame slides to counter tower lean. The tower tube also has a corrugated sleeve to prevent sand entry. The foundation has a cleaning mechanism with a rotating table, bevel gear, and drive motor to scrape sand from the surface.

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A method to reinforce the foundations of large wind turbines to make them more stable and able to support taller towers and higher capacity turbines. The reinforcement involves adding a thick concrete layer on the outside of the existing concrete foundation and driving prestressed anchors through the concrete into the ground. The concrete layer and anchors are grouted together to form a reinforced structure that provides increased pullout force and resistance to load transfer. This improves the stability of the wind turbine foundation and allows replacing older turbines with taller ones without risk of overturning.

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Offshore wind turbine foundation design to reduce cost and improve stability. The foundation has a modular construction with separate components that can be connected and grouted together. The foundation includes a platform, supporting cylinders with grouted piles, and reinforcing components. The cylinders have intersecting axes and reinforcing ribs inside. This allows thinner cylinders and less material compared to solid cylinders. The grouted piles provide bearing capacity. The modular design allows customization based on site conditions.

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A single pile foundation design for offshore wind turbines that reduces the required depth and construction costs compared to traditional deep pile foundations. The foundation has a root-like structure at the bottom instead of a standard flat base. This allows the pile to be driven deeper into the seabed without extending as far vertically, as the root shape provides stability. The root shape allows the pile to be driven further into the seabed without extending as far vertically, reducing the overall depth required.

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Large-diameter offshore wind turbine foundation design to improve rigidity and strength compared to all-steel foundations. The foundation has a concrete-filled steel inner reinforcement inside a concrete single pile. The steel reinforcement is hollow and connected to the pile walls with T-shaped steel. This provides a reinforced concrete core inside the pile to increase stiffness and strength. The steel reinforcement is prefabricated onshore and installed inside the pile before sinking it. This allows constructing the foundation in sections for transport and assembly instead of deep-water pile driving.

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Reinforcing the foundation of an existing wind turbine to enable replacing the turbine or increasing tower height without needing a new foundation. The reinforcement involves adding a high-strength grout ring under the existing anchor bolts and drilling additional holes around the concrete foundation. This prevents local damage when the turbine weight increases. The grout ring resists vertical forces transmitted from the tower base. The additional holes allow anchoring new prestressed piles into the ground below the foundation.

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A cylindrical foundation with wings and a single pile for offshore wind turbines that provides improved load bearing capacity and stability compared to traditional cylindrical foundations. The foundation has a cylindrical section with wings attached at the sides. The wings are connected to the cylinder and also to a single central pile. The wings and cylinder share the horizontal loads and bending moments from wind, waves, and currents, while the pile mainly supports the vertical load. This distributes loads more effectively and reduces the need for larger, more expensive foundations. The wings also reduce pile displacement at the seabed surface. The wings and cylinder are connected with grout to maximize load sharing.

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A combined polygonal cylindrical structure foundation for wind turbines that reduces cost compared to traditional pile foundations. The foundation has an expanded base connected to a polygonal cylinder of piles. The piles surround the cylinder and extend into the ground. This allows using a simpler, less precise pile arrangement compared to piles for a cylindrical foundation. The expanded base provides additional support. The piles extend deeper into the ground compared to a shallow cylinder foundation. This allows using fewer, wider piles instead of many narrow piles. The overall foundation is less expensive than a conventional cylinder foundation with many narrow piles and a pile cap.

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Single pile foundation for offshore wind turbines that provides sufficient horizontal bearing capacity, reduces pile displacement, and prevents scouring around the pile to ensure stability. The foundation has a skirt support structure around the periphery of the pile body. This structure transfers load to the skirt to increase horizontal capacity and reduce bending moments. The skirt also covers the seabed soil to block erosion by waves and currents. It has water holes to reduce weight, guide sand accumulation, and strengthen the soil around the pile.

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A new type of offshore wind turbine foundation suitable for shallow overburden that eliminates the need for deep rock socketing. The foundation consists of a single pile, a gravity plate fixed to the pile, and spiral piles around the gravity plate. The spiral piles are driven into the overburden and connected to the gravity plate. The single pile is then sunk through the center ring of the gravity plate. Concrete is grouted between the pile and plate to connect them. This spliced foundation provides vertical load capacity without deep rock socketing, improves load distribution, and reduces cost compared to deep socketed piles.

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Method to reinforce the bearing capacity of offshore wind turbine foundations in soft soil conditions by using a composite foundation design. The composite foundation has an outer friction body around the main pile foundation. It also has vertical grouting tunnels in the friction body with steel pipe nails. The nails are driven into the bearing layer to provide better support. Grout is injected into the tunnels and surrounding soil to reinforce the soft foundation. This improves the foundation's bearing capacity and interlocks the foundation components for better vertical and horizontal stability.

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A combined offshore wind turbine foundation for bedrock tilting that overcomes the limitations of conventional gravity foundations in areas with tilting rock surfaces. The foundation uses multiple piles instead of a single pile to provide stability and reduce settlement issues. The construction method involves sinking multiple piles into the rock instead of one large pile. This allows the piles to compensate for any rock tilting and provide a more uniform load distribution. The piles can be driven into the rock rather than needing drilling equipment, which speeds up construction compared to traditional gravity foundations. The joint foundation of multiple piles also reduces steel consumption compared to a single large pile.

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Thin-walled large diameter single-pile composite foundation for offshore wind turbines that improves load-bearing capacity while reducing costs compared to conventional foundations. The composite foundation consists of a smaller diameter upper section inside a larger diameter outer barrel. The thin-walled upper section has annular plates, vertical ribs, and circumferential beams. After driving the upper section into the soil, the outer barrel is lowered and grouted around the joint to form a reinforced ring. This transfers the load from the thin-walled section to the outer barrel. The thin walls of the upper section save cost, while the grouted joint increases strength.

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Reinforced connection structure and construction method for wind turbine towers and foundations to improve load transfer and prevent failures. The connection uses a circular structure on the foundation top, containing steel bars, leveling devices, and a steel grate. The tower sits on the grate. The circular structure is formed with high-strength grout. This provides a reinforced, adjustable, and level base for the tower. It avoids concrete compression and shear failures compared to conventional grouted connections. The construction involves steps like fixing anchors, forming foundation, cleaning, placing circular structure, hoisting tower, and grouting.

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