Insight into pile run risk of offshore piles during installation

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The offshore wind industry is developing at a rapid pace with large wind turbine generators. In order to support this fast growth of offshore wind farms, large diameter monopiles are being installed in offshore regions where industry has limited knowledge of installation experience and ground conditions. This has led to various installation challenges and pile run is one of the key challenges. Pile run is when a pile undergoes sudden and uncontrolled freefall which was not predicted. The pile run phenomenon is not well understood by the industry and there are currently lots of active research on this topic.

The risk of pile run might not be properly captured by existing analytical approaches. Pile run causes a significant risk to the project schedule, cost and to the safety of vessel and operational personnel. Hence, being able to predict the pile run risk at early stages is vital for the success of a project.

This paper provides insight into all the factors that could contribute to pile run incident and provides recommendation on how pile run risks can be better predicted. Key factors that could contribute to pile run is investigated and better method of pile run prediction is proposed based on analytical methods improved using in-house knowledge of pile run. This paper also presents numerical model results which provide vital insight to pile run initiation.

21st International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (Vienna)

TC209