Articles | Volume 21, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-81-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-81-2025
Research article
 | 
16 Jan 2025
Research article |  | 16 Jan 2025

Enhanced bed shear stress and mixing in the tidal wake of an offshore wind turbine monopile

Martin J. Austin, Christopher A. Unsworth, Katrien J. J. Van Landeghem, and Ben J. Lincoln

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Cited articles

Austin, M. J.: ECOWIND-ACCELERATE Rhyl Flats ADCP 2022, Zenodo [data set], https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12530957, 2024. a
Chambel, J., Fazeres-Ferradosa, T., Miranda, F., Bento, A. M., Taveira-Pinto, F., and Lomonaco, P.: A comprehensive review on scour and scour protections for complex bottom-fixed offshore and marine renewable energy foundations, Ocean Eng., 304, 117829, https://doi.org/10.1016/J.OCEANENG.2024.117829, 2024. a
Channel Coastal Observatory: Rhyl Flats Wave Buoy, https://www.coastalmonitoring.org/realtimedata/?chart=100{&}tab=info{&}disp_option= (last access: 3 July 2024), 2022. a
Christiansen, N., Carpenter, J. R., Daewel, U., Suzuki, N., and Schrum, C.: The large-scale impact of anthropogenic mixing by offshore wind turbine foundations in the shallow North Sea, Front. Mar. Sci., 10, 1178330, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2023.1178330, 2023. a
Couldrey, A. J., Benson, T., Knaapen, M. A., Marten, K. V., and Whitehouse, R. J.: Morphological evolution of a barchan dune migrating past an offshore wind farm foundation, Earth Surf. Proc. Land., 45, 2884–2896, https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.4937, 2020. a, b
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Short summary
Novel hydrodynamic observations 40 m from an offshore wind turbine monopile show that the turbulent tidal lee wake doubles the drag acting on the seabed, potentially enhancing sediment transport and impacting the seabed habitat and the organisms that utilise it. It also enhances the vertical mixing of the water column, which drives the transport of heat, nutrients and oxygen. As offshore wind farms rapidly expand into deeper waters, array-scale wakes may have significant ecological impacts.
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