Full-Scale Load Testing of the Swift Rock Anchor

TY - GEN

T1 - Full-Scale Load Testing of the Swift Rock Anchor

AU - Kaufmann, Nicholas

AU - Jeffcoate, Penny

AU - Cresswell, Nick

AU - Ciantia, Matteo

N1 - Conference code: 16

PY - 2025/9/8

Y1 - 2025/9/8

N2 - The Swift Anchor, designed and built by SCHOTTEL Marine Technologies (SMT), was created for challenging geotechnical and metocean environments to anchor floating marine energy systems. The system was designed for marine energy sites with rock seabeds. By relying on a mechanical interlock between the anchor and the surrounding rock, the groutless self-drilling Swift Anchor utilises the load bearing capacity of the seabed to secure floating devices in place. In order to verify the Swift Anchor design load bearing capacity, the anchors have undergone rigorous onshore testing in quarry trials. Therefore, A novel test methodology to prove the anchor’s specified load holding capacity was developed. A bespoke test rig was designed to perform load-controlled tests at any load angle from 0 to 90° allowing the load holding envelope of the anchor to be tested. This paper presents the details of the field-testing campaign. A preliminary set of load testing results are presented to demonstrate that the novel test methodology and test rig provide a rigorous and efficient setup to de-risk critical infrastructure of floating marine energy systems

AB - The Swift Anchor, designed and built by SCHOTTEL Marine Technologies (SMT), was created for challenging geotechnical and metocean environments to anchor floating marine energy systems. The system was designed for marine energy sites with rock seabeds. By relying on a mechanical interlock between the anchor and the surrounding rock, the groutless self-drilling Swift Anchor utilises the load bearing capacity of the seabed to secure floating devices in place. In order to verify the Swift Anchor design load bearing capacity, the anchors have undergone rigorous onshore testing in quarry trials. Therefore, A novel test methodology to prove the anchor’s specified load holding capacity was developed. A bespoke test rig was designed to perform load-controlled tests at any load angle from 0 to 90° allowing the load holding envelope of the anchor to be tested. This paper presents the details of the field-testing campaign. A preliminary set of load testing results are presented to demonstrate that the novel test methodology and test rig provide a rigorous and efficient setup to de-risk critical infrastructure of floating marine energy systems

KW - Rock Anchors

KW - Full-Scale Testing

KW - Load Testing

KW - Anchors for Floating Marine Energy Systems

UR - https://ewtec.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Programa-Detalhado.pdf

U2 - 10.36688/ewtec-2025-1018

DO - 10.36688/ewtec-2025-1018

M3 - Conference contribution

VL - 16

T3 - Proceedings of the European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference

BT - Proceedings of the 16th European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference 2025

PB - European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference

T2 - The 16th European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference

Y2 - 7 September 2025 through 11 September 2025

ER -