R&D
AES has built long-term collaborations with academic institutes. Our research focuses on the technologies that have a great potential to improve the life quality. Although our team has a wide range of research interests and practice experience, currently we are particularly interested in clean energy technology, new mode transportation, smart city, etc.
Completed R&D
Tubular Rivet Foundation
Tubular rivet foundation is a patented property that we invented to support onshore and offshore wind turbines.
Design and analysis template for the tubular rivet foundation has been successfully developed. Aiming at accurate analysis and reducing the uncertainty in engineering, design, and analysis for tubular rivet foundations are predominantly based on numerical analysis using well-accepted commercial software packages, both for geotechnical and structural analysis. Structural designs is primarily based on ACI, but can be easily adjusted to comply with other standards, e.g. Eurocode, or Chinese GB, etc.
The template has been validated with other software developed by professional associations.
The foundation is adaptive to any geologic conditions. However, it has more advantages over other types when subsurface conditions are more unfavorable. The foundation shows strong advantages particularly with site conditions of bedrocks, high groundwater level, Karst condition (voids), and in the areas with a high risk of flooding like lakeshore, beach, swamp, etc.
The configuration of the foundation endows its merit to have very high rotation stiffness and super bearing capacity, which are important to the wind turbine’s operation, productivity, and the design life of the foundation. Our research and other's centrifuge test also found the configuration of the foundation can effectively help to eliminate the "gapping" effect behind the pile head.
The foundation is very environment-friendly and the construction time is shorter compared with other type foundations.
Circular Corbelled Can-Shape Foundation & Construction Method
The foundation is a patented property. It is ideal to support onshore wind turbines like a rock socket foundation with a cap having a variable diameter and thickness. The foundation can be used to replace the monopier foundations or support the jacket legs of offshore wind turbines.
It is suitable to be used to support radio tower, transmission line, tower structures in ground transportation (roadway and railway), etc. The higher the loads and the more unfavorable the geologic conditions are, the more advantages it has over other foundations.
Design and analysis template for the circular can-shape corbelled foundation has been successfully developed. The template is predominantly based on numerical analysis using well-accepted commercial software packages, both for geotechnical and structural analysis. Structural design is primarily based on ACI, but can be adjusted to comply with other standards.
Circular Shape Gravity Foundation
The circular shape gravity foundation is analyzed and designed by using the “section” method. The “section” is essentially like an element, while the sizes and numbers of the sections are different from the elements in numerical analysis software but still accurate enough which are indicated by the comparisons of engineering quantities and the details designed by using commercial software, like Staad Pro ®. DNV’s bearing pressure diagram is used in the analysis, the shear and moment on each section are calculated for the base bottom and then reinforcements are analyzed and designed. For top mat reinforcement, the overburden of the foundation is used to obtain the shear and moment for the “sections” and similarly, the reinforcements are analyzed and designed accordingly.
Our analysis and design templates for gravity foundations can and have incorporated the soil wedge angle and the methodology allowing foundation gapping, which leads to a cost-saving approximately 5-10% compared with those not using them. The analysis has taken the soil degradation and reduced bearing area into account and the design meets the industry standards. A full explanation letter including the comments on the code specifications, general methodology, and the applicability of the specific conditions of the project will be included and help the design being reviewed by 3rd party reviewers.
Engineering quantities, including rebar lap length, schedule, etc, are automatically calculated, updated, and summarized.
Octagonal Shape Gravity Foundation
The octagonal shape foundation is very similar to a circular shape foundation. Due to the shape of foundations, the quantities of the two gravity foundations show some differences but, in our opinion, the final construction cost will not make significant differences.
We used the same design methodology for octagonal shape as that for circular shape gravity foundation. However, to consider constructability and avoid the dense arrangement of rebars caused by the narrow spacing of anchor bolts, orthogonal reinforcements are designed for the bottom mat and the radial and circumferential reinforcements are designed for the top mat.
The choices using circular or octagonal shape foundations are up to the client’s decision. As we mentioned before, engineering quantities of concrete and rebars may have slight differences but other considerations may offset them.
Undergoing Research
Collaborated with prestigious research institutions worldwide, we are performing evaluation and improvement of segmental ring structures to make them suitable for the maglev train tunnels.
Recently, a patent has been granted for a damping structure for tunnel lining structures which can reduce the damage and lower the construction cost in areas of high-intensity earthquakes and significant differential settlement.
Numerical analysis and physical modeling of the above research are undergoing.