Photo courtesy Choate Construction Co.

The 82,300-sq-ft facility in North Charleston, S.C., supports the testing of offshore wind turbines by simulating an estimating 20 years of field conditions in just a few months.

Photo courtesy Choate Construction Co.

在建立两个测试钻机的支撑结构时，要求工作人员在每个维度上达到极端公差。

早在2011年，“我们没有明确的规格，”曾担任项目经理的Tuten说。尽管定义较差的范围可能是一个项目杀手，但对于建立SCE＆G Energy Innovation Center（现在称为）的团队来说，这种早期缺乏定义使他们对设计和建造设施的承诺达到了强大的承诺，该设施将尽可能地使用，以便尽可能地发挥作用它的最终用户。这是因为，实际上，克莱姆森及其建筑商正在塑造一种全新的设施，主要基于风盘制造商的一厢情愿，他们被要求设想理想的测试中心。

位于退役的美国海军仓库内，在康复的棕地遗址（用于Curi的重建和可持续性任务）中，82,300平方英尺的设施支持了对海上风力涡轮机的测试，使制造商能够模拟估计的20年在20年的现场条件下在现场条件下模拟20年的现场条件。仅几个月。尽管存在其他风力涡轮动力传动系统测试设施，但克莱姆森（Clemson）的LEED金牌认证中心进一步走了几步。

The inclusion of a 15-MW hardware-in-the-loop grid simulator, for instance, lets manufacturers evaluate their devices' impact on the grid. By recycling the electricity produced by the drivetrain testing—thus avoiding grid impacts—the center became the world's first facility capable of evaluating 60-Hz equipment, intended for North America, as well as 50-Hz units, designed for global markets.

尽管较早，不确定的范围，但施工时钟从一开始就在滴答作响。以截止日期为中心的刺激基金支持的4700万美元的能源赠款将项目所有者和总承包商Choate Construction Co.促进了铲子。

不过，项目团队并没有完全盲目建立。基于扭矩容量和刀片装载能力等因素，使用了建筑物可能会经历的测试引起的力量的估计来解决早期行业反馈，Curi和AEC工程开始设计工作。随着典型的涡轮叶片的长度高达300英尺，该设施将不得不忍受由7.5兆瓦和15兆瓦测试钻机产生的巨大，波动的振动，这模拟了离岸条件的现实生活应力。

即使该地点位于库珀河旁边，通常是查尔斯顿（Mucky Charleston）土壤上的土壤，但建筑商认为39英尺高的结构可以容纳巨型机器。

But as the facility began moving toward reality, industry's needs—and DOE's suggestions—changed, growing to be "a lot more than anybody had anticipated," Tuten says. Since the test equipment ended up being significantly stouter than expected, one of the first major increases in scope resulted: a redesign of the foundation system.

The site's swampy soils provided a challenge as well. As Tuten told ENR Southeast at the time, "We had heavy loads on muck in a seismic area with flooding potential and high wind loads due to hurricanes on a brownfield site."

Accommodating these greater-than-expected loads and retrofitting the existing structure to current wind and seismic codes required contractors to beef up the foundation by installing 432 steel H-piles, ranging from 46 ft to 57 ft in length.

该研究中心建于两个巨大的设备，两者中的较小设备由7.5兆瓦的变速箱驱动，另一个由15兆瓦，341吨的变速箱驱动，这被认为是世界上最大的变速箱。除了变得更加黑啤酒外，使用摩擦桩被认为是这种类型的设施的第一个基础，还需要独立运作。

"The foundations required isolation from the existing structure such that external vibrations were not induced into the test specimen and test vibrations were not transmitted to the facility," Thomas Lorentz, senior vice president with AEC Engineering, told ENR Southeast during construction.