PORE WATER PRESSURE DEVELOPMENT AROUND THE MONOPILE FOUNDATIONS OF OFFSHORE WIND ENERGY CONVERTERS
JOURNAL OF THE FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE OF GAZI UNIVERSITY, vol.29, no.2, pp.331-341, 2014 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus, TRDizin)
- Publication Type: Article / Article
- Volume: 29 Issue: 2
- Publication Date: 2014
- Journal Name: JOURNAL OF THE FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE OF GAZI UNIVERSITY
- Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, TR DİZİN (ULAKBİM)
- Page Numbers: pp.331-341
- Keywords: Offshore wind energy converters, monopiles, cyclic loading, hypoplastic model, fully coupled two-phase model, numerical analysis, excess pore water pressure
- Dokuz Eylül University Affiliated: Yes
Abstract
Offshore wind energy converters (OWECs) require specific foundations due to special loading conditions. Large diameter monopiles are widely proposed for OWECs. The behavior of large diameter monopiles under cyclic lateral loads was investigated in this study by means of numerical simulation with finite element method. Special focus is given to the pore water pressure accumulation around the monopile. For this purpose a fully coupled two-phase finite element (u20p8) is developed. A hypoplastic constitutive model for the saturated sand soil is used in the numerical analyses. The results revealed that, pile head displacement is strongly dependent on excess pore water pressure (EPWP) accumulation around the monopile. Subsequently, pile diameter-hydraulic conductivity interaction diagram was derived with a parametric study to estimate the pore water pressure accumulation potential. The proposed interaction diagram enables a preliminary design tool of monopiles for offshore wind energy converters in saturated sand soils.