Effects of installation process on lateral bearing behaviour of monopiles for offshore wind turbines

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Monopile foundations are the predominant solution for Offshore Wind Turbines (OWTs). They are installed using methods that involve jacking, impact hammering and vibratory driving. This study aims to investigate the effects of the installation process on the surrounding soil mass, and its impact on the lateral response and capacity of monopiles in sands. In view of the proposed analyses, a large deformation model using the Coupled Eulerian Lagrangian (CEL) method, and a small-strain Finite Element Method (FEM) model are developed in Abaqus, for the simulation of the jacked pile installation and the monotonic lateral response, respectively. In particular, the nonlinear stress-state response of the sand is simulated using the hypoplastic law with intergranular strain. The proposed models are validated against data obtained from centrifuge experimental tests in dry fine silica sand, available in the literature. The findings from the large deformation model show that the initial soil conditions for lateral monopile response are significantly affected by the jacked installation method. For this purpose, the stress-history and the state of the sand around the pile are tracked, and the lateral behaviour of the jacked pile is compared with the wished in place pile.

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

6 - Pile Installation Challenges and Decommissioning in sands and clays: monopiles, anchor piles, pin piles