Pin foundation resistance in rock - Numerical modelling with DEM

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Tidal energy from offshore fields is a powerful source of renewable energy and the first commercial farm offshore France is now at detail design stage. The need of a technical solution that can be installed in short time and with reduced weather standby is leading the industry to consider  purely gravity-based foundation structure to bear the turbine. Engineering studies designed such foundation to be placed on 3 so-called pins, which shall be able to bear the significant horizontal loads applied to the structure with the minimum vertical load on a rocky seabed. The properties of the rock mass were determined via a site investigation, and a Discrete Element Method (DEM) model was calibrated to accurately reproduce the estimated rock mass strength at different confining stresses. Both the peak strength of the rock mass and the residual (crushed rock) strength were provided within the same calibrated DEM model, so that the combined behaviour of the unbroken rock and the crushed one were taken into account in the calculation of the global pin strength. The holding capacity of the foundation to the combined vertical and horizontal loads was obtained, as well as the additional vertical penetration induced

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