Design of Axially and Laterally Loaded Piles for the Support of Offshore Wind Energy Converters Achmus, M. Professor e-mail: [email protected]Institute of Soil Mechanics, Foundation Engineering and Waterpower Engineering/Leibniz University of Hannover, Hannover, Germany ABSTRACT A large number of offshore wind farms is being planned in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea in Europe and will be erected in the coming years. Possible foundation structures for water depths of up to 50m are jacket and tripod structures, i.e. structures with three or four mainly axially loaded piles, and for moderate water depths also monopiles, which are mainly horizontally loaded large diameter piles. A special aspect in design is the question how effects induced by cyclic loading of these foundation piles can be considered adequately. For cyclic axially loaded piles degradation of pile capacity might occur, and for cyclic horizontally loaded piles stability has to be proved and an increase of permanent deformation over the lifetime is to be expected. The paper in hand presents calculation approaches for the piles under axial and lateral loading and outlines possible design procedures with consideration of cyclic load effects. Indian Geotechnical Conference – 2010, GEOtrendz December 16–18, 2010 IGS Mumbai Chapter & IIT Bombay 1. INTRODUCTION In the North Sea and the Baltic Sea in Europe a vast number of offshore wind farms are being planned and several have already been installed in recent years. Up to now, in most cases wind farms were erected in moderate water depths (less than 20m) and monopile foundations have been built as support structures for the wind tower and the turbine. A monopile consists of a single open steel pipe pile of large diameter which is driven into the seabed. Diameters of up to 5m have been realized recently. The tower is connected to the monopile by a transition piece located above the water level (Fig. 1, left). This type of foundation transfers the loads from wind and waves mainly by horizontal stresses into the ground and is believed to be suitable for water depths of up to 25m. In the German parts of North Sea and Baltic Sea water depths of up to 50m exist. For such large water depths steel frame structures (jackets with four legs or tripods with three legs) can be used, which are supported by four or three piles located in the edges of the construction (Fig. 1, right). Regarding the lengths of these piles, the axial (compressive or tensile) loads induced by wind and waves are design- driving. Design methods and experience with offshore piles exist mainly from structures built by the oil and gas industry. However, the loading conditions for offshore wind mill foundations are different. The vertical loads are much smaller than for oil or gas platforms, and thus the horizontal loads are of similar magnitude compared to the vertical loads. This means that the extremely cyclic nature of wind and wave forces is much more important than for very heavy structures. Due to that, consideration of cyclic load effects is extremely important. Regarding monopiles, on one hand the question, whether usual calculation methods (p-y method) can be used for piles of very large diameter, has to be answered. On the other hand it has to be investigated how the system stability under cyclic loads can be proved and how accumulated deformations due to cyclic loading can be predicted. The latter is particularly important, since the requirements regarding the stiffness of such structures are very strict. A maximum rotation of the pile head of 0.5° is usually demanded. Regarding axially loaded piles an important question is how the axial ultimate pile capacity can be predicted with sufficient accuracy. The ß-method commonly used in offshore design (e.g. API, 2000) is known to either over- or underestimate pile capacities, dependent on the boundary conditions. Recently, CPT-based methods have been developed as an alternative. Another open question is how
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Design of Axially and Laterally Loaded Piles for the Support of
Very Dense Sand-Silt ___________________________________________ Very Dense Sand 0.56 115 ___________________________________________
The use of cone penetration test (CPT) results
potentially allows a more precise reflection of soil density,
compressibility and stress level than the consideration of
the subsoil only with regard to relative density in the β-
method. In 2007 the API published an Errata and
Supplement 3 to the guideline API RP 2A, including new“CPT-based methods” (API 2007). These approaches
consider all the influencing factors given above and should
thus allow a more accurate calculation of the pile capacity
for a wide range of non-cohesive soils. However, offshore
experience with the application of these CPT methods is
still limited and therefore more experience is needed before
they can be recommended for routine design, to replace
the API β-method.
The CPT-based methods which were introduced in the
API (2007) are simplified versions of the full versions
published by different research groups (Jardine et al. 2005,
Kolk and Baaijens 2005, Lehane et al. 2005b, Clausen et
al. 2005). These simplified methods can yield slightly
different results than the full versions of these methods,
but for the case of offshore piles these differences areassumed to be small. The CPT-method results discussed in
this paper were derived from the simplified versions given
in API (2007) and are termed in the following ICP, FUGRO,
UWA and NGI, respectively.
To determine skin friction according to the first three
methods, the following general formula can be used (API
2007).
( ) [ ]dcv
c
br
a
a
vzct v
D
zLA
pquf δ
σtan;max
' 0,
−
−
⋅= (14)
where qc,z
= CPT cone tip resistance at depth z; σ’v0
=
effective vertical in-situ soil stress; pa = atmospheric
pressure = 100 kPa; Ar = effective area ratio A
r = 1 - (D
i /
Do)²; D
o = pile outer diameter; D
i = pile inner diameter; L
= embedded pile length; δcv
= critical interface friction
angle; a, b, c, d, u and v = empirical parameters to be taken
from Table 2 (given for tension loading).
The fourth method for estimating the skin friction is
the NGI approach (Eqs. 15 and 16).
( )[ ]{ } 7.125.00
75.01.01.0;max1.2' −⋅⋅⋅⋅= rvat Dp
L
zf σ (15)
⋅⋅=
av
zc
rp
qD
0
,
'22ln4.0
σ(16)
where Dr = relative density of the soil.
Table 2: Unit Skin Friction Parameters for Tension Loading
for the Methods ICP, UWA and FUGRO (API 2007)____________________________________________ Method a b c d u v ____________________________________________
1 (ICP) 0.1 0.2 0.4 1 0.016 4√Ar
2 (UWA) 0.0 0.3 0.5 1 0.022 2
3 (FUGRO) 0.15 0.42 0.85 0 0.025 2√Ar ____________________________________________ The fourth method for estimating the skin friction is the The FUGRO and NGI approaches both apply a constant
fr iction coefficient, whereas in the ICP and UWA
approaches a dependence on the sand coarseness is
considered, with a maximum value of tan dcv
= 0.55 for
driven piles.
The CPT-based methods described above are all semi-
empirical approaches, which were calibrated against a
database of pile test results. Although the different databases
had a large number of tests in common, they were in general
different. Tests in very different soils and with different
pile systems (open-ended and closed-ended steel piles,
rectangular concrete piles) are included. Most of the tested
piles had diameters smaller than 1.0m.
The subsoil in the German North Sea typically consists
mainly of sandy soils, which are at least in a medium dense
and often dense to very dense state. Intermediate cohesive
layers occur, but normally with limited thicknesses. The
piles to be used for tripod or jacket foundations are usually
open-ended steel pipe piles with diameters between 1.5 and
3m and slenderness ratios (embedded length to diameter)
between L/D = 10 and L/D = 40. Pile tests which are
relevant to these conditions are very scarce in the databases.
All in all, only 6 test results included in the different
databases, mainly stemming from the CLAROM, GOPAL,
HOOGZAND and EURIPI-DES test series, are relevant to
open-ended steel pipe piles in sandy soil. For these tests
the pile capacities were determined with the different
approaches, and the results are shown in Fig. 8 in terms of
ratio of calculated to measured pile capacity Qc/Q
m over
slenderness ratio L/D. For application of the API b-method,
the relative densities of the soil layers were derived from
the CPT diagrams given using the method proposed by
Jamiolkowski et al. (2001).
Due to the limited number of tests, a final assessment
of the approaches based on them is difficult. It can however
be stated that the API β-approach largely underestimates
the axial pile capacity for piles with slenderness ratios of
ft, max
100 M. Achmus
less than 20. In order to compare the quality of the different
approaches with respect to the test results used, the mean
values and the standard deviations (coefficient of variation,
COV) of the Qc/Q
m-values were calculated, as shown in
Table 3.
Fig. 8: Comparison of Calculated and Measured Tensile Pile
Capacities with Respect to Pile Slenderness Ratio L/D
Table 3: Mean Value and Standard Deviation of Qc/Q
m____________________________________________ API ICP UWA FUGRO NGI ____________________________________________
cyclic axial loading of piles exist, the respective knowledge
is still rather limited. Another question with particular
importance for piles of offshore wind energy foundations
is how loads with different amplitudes can be considered.
For a first approximation, an approach of Seed et al. (1975)
developed for earthquake loading can be used to determine
an equivalent substitute load with constant amplitude.
However, urgent need for further research must be stated.
4. CONCLUSIONS
Several special questions have to be answered with regard
to the design of piles for offshore wind energy foundations.
On one hand, new foundation types are used like piles with
very large diameters (monopiles), for which no experience
exists. Also, in order to save costs for the large number of
piles necessary for one wind farm, most accurate pile
capacity predictions are demanded. On the other hand,
effects of cyclic loading must be assessed and taken into
account in the design. This is not a new question, but it is
of particular importance here, since the static loads of
offshore wind energy converters are small compared to usual
offshore structures and thus cyclic loading due to wind and
wave actions becomes much more important.
The paper in hand presents calculation approaches for
monopiles. In particular, a new method to determine the
accumulation of pile deflections with the number of load
cycles is described. This method makes it possible to assess
the cyclic performance of horizontally loaded piles, taking
the pile geometry and the soil conditions (e.g. layered soil)
into account.
Regarding mainly axially loaded piles for offshore wind
energy foundations, different methods to determine the
static tensile pile capacity are presented and compared and
approaches to deal with the capacity degradation under
cyclic axial load are discussed.
Summarizing the results, it must be stated that the
knowledge regarding the behaviour of piles under either
axial or lateral cyclic loads is limited. The existing
calculation approaches are more or less of an approximate
nature. Thus, there is an urgent need of research with regard
to cyclically loaded piles.
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