Join our Samuel kemmler for his talk at the 10th International Conference on Discrete Element Methods (DEM10) this summer in Himeji, Japan !
Suction bucket foundations are a cost-efficient and environmentally sustainable method for installing offshore wind turbines, however, they can fail because of piping erosion, when fluidization of particles beneath the bucket wall tip causes a drop in suction pressure. Unfortunately, the mechanisms of piping erosion are insufficiently understood. Hence, a three-dimensional, fully-resolved coupled LBM-DEM simulation is employed to conduct an in-depth analysis of piping erosion to identify key influencing parameters and enhance understanding and optimisation of the installation process. Results from simulations executed on hundreds of GPUs on the LUMI supercomputer are presented, illustrating the method’s capability to tackle this complex challenge.