Design with Spatial Soil Variability (DSSV) for Offshore Foundations

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The design of offshore wind farm foundations has traditionally followed the approach of using a single set of design parameters for relevant properties for each of the soil strata even though the measured soil data exhibit spatial variability. The range of measured data in soil represents the real soil conditions which are variable spatially, but designers assign a single design value to be able to proceed the design and ignoring the spatial variability. In order to capture the range in soil parameters, engineers undertake the design calculations with high estimate and low estimate soil parameters. This approach cannot capture the real impact of spatial soil variability for a single set of values for the full strata depth and lateral extend. This paper presents an innovative and novel methodology which captures spatial variability of soil properties into detailed foundation design. This methodology combines innovative meshing, statistical analysis and random field theory, automated computing capabilities with finite element analysis in Plaxis 3D. This methodology is named Design with Soil Spatial Variability (DSSV). The paper presents how DSSV can be used in real projects using the example of a monopile design with real geotechnical site data. The methodology introduced in this paper could revolutionise how the geotechnical data is utilized in foundation designs and also could be the first step in bringing data-driven modelling approach into geotechnical foundation designs.

5th International Symposium on Frontiers in Offshore Geotechnics (ISFOG2025)

17 - Design Standards, Certification and Risk Mitigation