Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. is a leading global dredging and offshore contractor and maritime services provider.

The challenge
Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. (Boskalis) in partnership with VolkerWessels (Volker Stevin International) have been awarded a contract by Veja Mate Offshore Project GmbH for the design, procurement, fabrication, supply, transportation, installation and testing of sixty seven (67) foundations for the Veja Mate Offshore Wind Farm in the German section of the North Sea. The piles with a length of 80 meters, a diameter of 7.8 meters and a weight of 1300MT where the largest ever used. To reduce the risks during installation Boskalis designed a pilegripper for the handling of the piles to keep them in place and to control the weight and dynamics caused by wind and sea. The accurate operation of the system was key for safe and precise installation of the piles. Therefore the complete system has to be validated before the real operation took place.

Result
In close cooperation with all parties involved Batenburg JB Systems realized a HIL-simulation of the complete system. The simulation consists of dynamic models of the hydraulic and mechanical system and a functional simulation in Winmod to validate the PLC program. Within the simulator it’s possible to change important parameters to validate the system under different circumstances. For example we can change the wind speed, wave direction, current, and wave height. Also the effect of these variables on the pile are part of the dynamics within the simulator.