Cyclic behaviour of laterally loaded (mono)piles in sand: With emphasis on pile driving effects

At the end of 2019, the European Union (EU) put forward the European Green Deal to facilitate the technological progress necessary to achieve CO2-neutrality by 2050. Such a monumental achievement would require massive investments in infrastructure for the harvesting, storage and the transnational transportation of green energy. To date, the more...

Gentle Driving of Piles at a Sandy Site Combining Axial and Torsional Vibrations: Quantifying the Influence of Pile Installation Method on Lateral Behavior

Gentle driving of piles (GDP) is a new technology for the vibratory installation of tubular (mono) piles that aims to achieve both efficient installation and low noise emission by combining axial and torsional vibrations. To provide a preliminary demonstration of the GDP concept, onshore medium-scale tests in sand were performed in late 2019...

From cyclic sand ratcheting to tilt accumulation of offshore monopiles: 3D FE modelling using SANISAND-MS

Serviceability criteria for offshore monopiles include the estimation of long-term, permanent tilt under repeated operational loads. In the lack of well-established analysis methods, experimental and numerical research has been carried out in the last decade to support the fundamental understanding of monopile-soil interaction mechanisms, and...

Experimental identification of the dynamic behaviour of pile-soil system installed by means of three different pile-driving techniques

A novel pile-driving technique, named Gentle Driving of Piles (GDP), that combines axial low-frequency and torsional high-frequency vibrations has been developed and tested recently. During the experimental campaign, several piles were installed onshore, making use of the GDP shaker. Besides those, a number of additional piles were installed...

Frequency effects in the dynamic lateral stiffness of monopiles in sand: insight from field tests and 3D FE modelling

With the offshore wind industry rapidly expanding worldwide, geotechnical research is being devoted to foundation optimisation - most intensively for large-diameter monopiles. The analysis and design of monopiles still suffers from significant uncertainties in relation to cyclic/dynamic loading conditions. The aim of this work is to shed new...

3D FE seismic analysis of a monopile-supported offshore wind turbine in a non-liquefiable soil deposit

Japan is one of the most seismically active countries in the world, and is currently planning to invest on offshore wind energy. In support of this relevant energy transition, this work presents a numerical study regarding a monopile-supported offshore wind turbine (OWT) under seismic loading conditions. For this purpose, a realistic design of...

Geotechnical aspects of offshore wind turbine dynamics from 3D non-linear soil-structure simulations

The development of the offshore wind industry is motivating substantial research efforts worldwide, where offshore wind turbines (OWTs) of increasing size are being installed in deeper water depths. Foundation design is a major factor affecting the structural performance of OWTs, with most installations founded to date on large-diameter...

3D FE dynamic modelling of offshore wind turbines in sand: natural frequency evolution in the pre– to after-storm transition

3D non-linear finite element analyses are proving increasingly beneficial to analyse the foundations of offshore wind turbines (OWTs) in combination with advanced soil modelling. For this purpose, the well-known SANISAND04 bounding surface plasticity model (Dafalias & Manzari 2004) is adopted in this work to incorporate key aspects of...