Over 40 years NGI has acquired significant expertise in offshore geotechnics through technical projects for the oil and gas industry. Today NGI is actively involved in soil investigations and laboratory testing, geotechnical engineering, instrumentation and monitoring of foundations for offshore wind farms.

Field and laboratory testing:
Safe design of offshore foundations depends on reliable description of site and soil conditions. NGIs laboratories, workshops and model testing facilities cover 2000 m, where standard tests, advanced tests and model tests are performed. NGI cooperates with offshore geotechnical drilling companies worldwide with on-board laboratory testing and supervision. For decades NGI has developed various offshore testing equipment, to obtain high quality samples and to establish reliable in-situ soil properties.

Foundation design:
Since the early seventies NGI has focused on effects of cyclic wave loading in the design of offshore foundations. Today this knowledge is requested and applied by wind energy companies and contractors worldwide, to serve the growing offshore wind energy sector. Variable soil conditions are typical for near-shore sites, calling for thorough planning of soil investigations, as well as creative and alternative foundation solutions. The geotechnical design challenge is to utilize the state-of-the-art techniques to develop cost-effective and safe foundations for wind towers.

Monitoring and geophysics:
NGI offers a wide range of technical expertise combined with extensive practical experience. Our services cover all phases of project development, design and fabrication of monitoring systems, field operations for installation of systems and structures, and long-term post installation monitoring for the evaluation of structural and foundation performance.