Centrifuge Modeling of Cyclic Lateral Behaviors of a Tetrapod Piled Jacket Foundation for Offshore Wind Turbines in Sand
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 145, Issue 11
Abstract
A program of centrifuge model tests conducted on the cyclic lateral behavior of a tetrapod piled jacket (TPJ) foundation for offshore wind turbines (OWTs) in medium dense sand was reported. The key parameters investigated were the lateral loading direction, cyclic load amplitude, and cyclic loading type (i.e., one- or two-way loading) in terms of the overall response of the TPJ and the more detailed pile-soil interaction. Under small- and moderate-amplitude loads, that is, 20% and 40% of lateral bearing capacity, respectively, loading along the diagonal direction had a more pronounced impact on increasing the accumulative displacement and unloading stiffness of the foundation than along the orthogonal direction. Both suggest less favorable conditions for the former regarding the serviceability of OWTs. Throughout the loading, a progressive transfer of the lateral load carried by the upwind piles to the downwind ones was identified and a degradation factor model was derived based on cyclic curves to assess the cyclic lateral pile-soil interactions of TPJ foundations in preliminary design. The complementary two-way loading test showed less hysteresis and degradation behavior of the soil than the one-way test, and hence limited accumulative displacement of the TPJ despite the load being applied in an asymmetrical form. Thus, the degradation model developed in the scenario of one-way loading is considered conservative.
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Data Availability Statement
All data generated or used during the study are available from the corresponding author by request.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Research Grant: 51809232 and 51679211) and Guangdong Electric Power Design Institute (Research Grant: 2011-CGSQ-264).
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 145 • Issue 11 • November 2019
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©2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 9, 2018
Accepted: Jun 13, 2019
Published online: Sep 9, 2019
Published in print: Nov 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Feb 9, 2020
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