Pin foundation resistance in coarse gravel seabed - Numerical modelling with DEM

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Tidal energy is receiving interest as a viable source of renewable energy from offshore and is now ready for the first commercial farm offshore in France. The need of a technical and cost-effective solution has guided the industry to develop a turbine that can be installed on a purely gravity-based foundation structure. Such foundation will be placed in contact with the seabed by 3 isolated so-called pins, which shall be able to bear the significant horizontal loads applied to the structure with the minimum vertical load. The pins shall grant such resistance on the rocky seabed as well as on the intermittent coarse gravel layer lying above, to cope with the observed seabed features. This paper presents the Discrete Element Method (DEM) particle model that was developed to study the pin behaviour and its holding capacity into the gravel layer. Different combinations of vertical loads and penetrations were explored and the corresponding holding capacities were determined. Further vertical penetration induced by the horizontal loading was also calculated. The calibrated DEM model enabled the design of the pin to grant the necessary capacity without exceeding the maximum allowed penetration for the service of the turbine.

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

7 - Pile design and installation in challenging soil conditions: glauconite, carbonated soils, cemented soils, gravels and rocks