Abstract:Under the complex marine environment, strong scouring on the foundations of offshore wind turbines poses a significant threat to the safety of the offshore wind power structure. Therefore, investigating effective scour protection methods is crucial to ensure the operational safety of the wind power structure system. In this regard, three composite protection methods, namely stone throwing with flexible curtains, biomimetic water plants with stone throwing, and horizontal baffles with sleeves, were proposed to protect against scouring under wave action in a specific engineering project. Physical model tests were carried out in a wave flume to analyze the scour morphology and maximum scour depth around the pile foundation under different protection measures. Flexible curtains can reduce the shear effect of submerging currents and horseshoe vortices on the bed and reduce the loss of sediment. Bionic water grass can provide similar effects while also reducing the forward flow velocity and preventing secondary scouring. The sleeves can compensate for the vulnerability of the edges of horizontal baffles to scouring when used alone. All three protection methods showed good performance in mitigating scour under wave conditions, with the combined protection of horizontal baffles and sleeves being the most effective.