Geological, Geotechnical and Geophysical Aspects of Zafarana Wind Farms Sites and Their Expansion at Gabel El Zeit Sites Egypt

Kamal, H; Saudi, G; Abd Aal, Abdel Aziz

doi:10.1088/1757-899X/974/1/012005

Geological, Geotechnical and Geophysical Aspects of Zafarana Wind Farms Sites and Their Expansion at Gabel El Zeit Sites Egypt

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering Department, Housing and Building National Research Center (HBRC), Cairo, Egypt.

² Steel and Structural Engineering Department, Housing and Building National Research Center (HBRC), Cairo, Egypt.

³ National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (NRIAG), Cairo, Egypt.

10.1088/1757-899X/974/1/012005

Abstract

The growing need for sustainable power generation has led to increasing number of power plants, of fossil-fuel type and of non-conventional type. The foundation types of wind turbine towers in power plant structures are mainly depend on the geotechnical and structural considerations and other geological and geophysical considerations. The safety and economic conditions also play a vital role in the design of foundations. Such foundations must effectively be designed taken into consideration large overturning moments and dynamic loading due to extreme wind and earthquakes. The present research is focused on studying the geotechnical, geological and geophysical aspects and characterizes of soils in Zafarana Wind Farms sites and their expansion at Gabel El Zeit sites on the Suez Gulf of Egypt. The study first address and study the geological aspects of both sites Zafarana Wind Farms sites and Gabel El Zeit sites. Secondly, the geotechnical and geophysical characteristics are studied based on establishing data base from 698 borings and 8 seismic refraction profiles across Zafarana wind Farm sites and 10 borings and 2 seismic refraction profiles at Gabel El Zeit site. The geotechnical testing and geophysical profiles were compiled to determine the variation of the soil profile as well as the characteristics of the soil layers within the study sites. The results showed construction of 8 representative boring logs at Zafarana Wind Farm sites and 2 representative boring logs Gabel El Zeit sites to represent the characteristics of the
soil layers and site statgerphy. Also, the study shows the result of compression wave velocity and shear wave velocity across both sites and within the studied soil layers up to 30 m. All these results from this research will help to study the foundation and the structure of wind turbine tower , where these types of tall structures are similar to chimney structures in design and other engineering considerations.

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