Case Study: Fujian Yongfu Power Engineering achieves typhoon‑ and earthquake‑resistant suction‑pile foundations and 30% cost savings with Bentley’s PLAXIS and OpenWindPower

Fujian Yongfu Creates a New Type of Wind Turbine Foundation that Resists Typhoons and Earthquakes

Fujian Yongfu Power Engineering faced the challenge of building the China Changle Offshore Wind Farm Area C 31 km offshore in 31–45 m waters where frequent typhoons, the risk of magnitude‑7 earthquakes, soft/unstable soils, extreme depth, and budget constraints made conventional foundation designs impractical. To address this, Fujian Yongfu turned to Bentley solutions—using PLAXIS together with OpenWindPower Fixed Foundation (and SACS integration)—to unify geotechnical analysis and foundation modeling for a novel suction‑pile approach.

Using Bentley’s PLAXIS and OpenWindPower Fixed Foundation with SACS, the team simultaneously modeled soil behavior and optimized a three‑pile suction conduit frame that reduced steel and construction needs while improving fatigue performance and installation safety. The design enabled 62 × 8 MW turbines (496 MW total), cut costs by about 30% (over CNY 400 million), and will avoid burning 535,000 tons of coal annually and reduce CO2 emissions by 1,462,600 tons, while ensuring foundations that withstand typhoons, shifting soils, and earthquakes.

Fujian Yongfu Power Engineering

Fan Xia Ling

Engineering