Many businesses and communities are using wind as a source of renewable energy. To capture and harness wind energy, they need to build turbines with solid foundations. Here’s how our ground improvement services help general contractors complete onshore wind turbine foundations.
Why Do Wind Turbines Need Deep Foundation and Ground Improvement Solutions?
Wind turbines are tall, slim structures with load-bearing pieces that sit high above their bases and need a firm foundation to help them stay upright. Oftentimes, the soil below the proposed structure is collapsible. This leaves engineers a few options to prevent settlement – create a deep foundation system or improve the soil conditions.
Deep foundation services don’t often work for wind turbine foundation projects as they can become very costly. In those cases, CNC Foundations provides ground improvement services that stiffen and strengthen the ground in and around the foundation. We use vibratory stone columns (VSCs), vibratory concrete columns (VCCs), aggregate piers, or displacement piles to create ground improvement solutions for wind turbine foundations. How do you know whether your turbine needs deep foundation or ground improvement services? We assess your project and help you select the right services to improve your foundation.
What Types of Turbine Foundations Do We Work With?
All turbine foundations are basement foundations. The turbine basement is the very bottom of the structure that holds the rest of it up. CNC Foundations works specifically with several types of onshore wind turbine foundations, which are turbine foundations located on dry land. The types of foundations we work with include the following:
- Shallow Mat Extensions: These basement foundations are solid, flat, and round. They don’t need extremely deep foundations, but they may need ground improvement solutions around the mat basement to strengthen the soil underneath the mat foundation.
- Ribbed Beam Basements: These basements are also round, but they have concrete slab beams with open spaces in between them. These slab foundations may also need ground improvement services to solidify the ground underneath and around them.
- Underneath Pile Foundations: As described above, these foundations have piles placed beneath the foundation to strengthen it. These foundations are round, but their basements consist of a wired tube in the center surrounded by a soil foundation where the tops of the piles poke out of the ground. They work best in soft soils, in places such as marshes or coastal mudflats. Our deep foundation services help create these pile foundations, and our ground improvement services strengthen the soft soils around these foundations to prepare their sites for these installations.
- Uplift Anchors: These basements are round and consist of concrete slabs with steel components sitting on top of them. They often work well in mountainous areas. Our ground improvement services ensure that their sites are prepared to support uplift anchor foundations.
How Can You Determine Which Services Meet Your Turbine Foundation’s Needs?
We help you figure out whether your turbine foundation needs ground improvement services. The services you need depend on various factors, including the capacity of the soil to support your turbine, your windmill’s footing and size, and other design aspects. Our services ensure your turbine’s site has the strength to support the foundation through any type of weather, including severe storms and earthquakes. The more support your turbine’s foundation has, the better chances the turbine has of staying upright. If you need to strengthen your turbine’s basement foundation, we work with your project’s general contractor to find the right solution for you.
Improve Your Turbine’s Foundation With CNC Foundations
If you want to strengthen the soil in and around your wind turbine’s foundation, reach out to CNC Foundations today. Our ground improvement services create solid foundations that keep your onshore turbine upright in any and all weather conditions, no matter where you’re located.
