Cyclic response of laterally loaded pile after storm loading

Abstract

Offshore wind farms in China are in tropical cyclone zones, where typhoons or tropical revolving storms will pass through every year and can produce huge loads on the offshore wind turbines. Therefore, the stability of OWT foundations after storm loading is critical to ensure the safe operation and design life of turbines. While monopile is the most used foundation type for offshore wind, little studies exist on the cyclic response of monopile after storm loading. To fill the gap, this study presents a unique centrifuge and numerical study on the cyclic deflection response of monopile in medium dense sand after extreme storm loading. The centrifuge test was performed at 100g on a typical monopile with a prototype diameter (D) and embedded depth (L) of 4 m and 60 m, respectively. Finite element (FE) simulations using the advanced hypoplastic model for sand were performed to back-analyze the centrifuge test and provide further insights into the test results. From the centrifuge test, a unique “self-healing” beahviour of monopile was observed for the first time, where the foundation exhibited a deflection recovery response and tilted back to its initial position under the small amplitude cyclic load after the storm loading. This “self-healing” beahviour was also replicated by the FE model. By looking into the computed pile-soil interaction and soil element states around the pile, it was found that the “self-healing” response is attributed to the “lock-in” bending moment after the storm loading. This “lock-in” bending moment generated significant compressive horizontal stress on the soil elements behind the pile and produced more compressive strain under cyclic loading. As a result, the pile exhibited the “self-healing” response and tilted back against the loading direction.