The design of foundation structures for offshore wind turbines (OWEA) is essentially based on old algorithms derived from the early days of offshore oil and gas industry. Therefore they have to be adapted to the use of wind energy.

So far hardly any experience exists with respect to the real stress situation, and the sizing is derived by applying appropriate safety margins from onshore facilities.

The steel plates used in the production of foundation structures therefore show thicknesses up to 100 mm and require special quality assurance and qualification of welders within the use of conventional welding processes. This means that in a foundation structure up to 1200 tons of steel are needed (without foundation piles, tower, nacelle and rotor blades).

The production of foundation structures for OWEA represents both a resource- and energy-intensive production process that can be significantly optimized through improved structures as a result of bionic adaptation.

Many current research and development projects deal with the optimization of the structures, but without the focus on material savings and bionic approaches.

The aim of the project OFE is to develop a 5MW plant through the use of bionic principles of a possible structure which significantly optimizes the use of material, manufacturing and assembly while maintaining its carrying capacity.

All efforts of designing a new geometric form with state of the art optimizing tools ended in cross beam structures, which only can be built in an expensive way. Varying the tube thickness and contact points of the tripod by genetic optimization algorithms could only minimize its weight insignificantly.

At this stage several biology models were selected out of the radiolarian pool. Because the models aren't designed to carry a wind power plant, all models need to be analyzed using FE methods. Therefore all models were constructed in CAD and abstracted according to the technical load case of the foundation.

The results of the calculations presented Clatrocorys as the best candidate for optimization. After optimization of the structure and relevant production adjustments, the offshore foundation could be designed completely new. The design proposal only makes use of standard pipe diameters which are very cost effective. The overall weight could be decreased to 400t. The new foundation design is absolutely unique and can't be found with actual engineering design tools.