Steel interface shear behaviour of Bolders Bank till

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 The design of a wide range of offshore foundation elements, including monopiles, jacket piles, suction caissons buckets and pipelines requires accurate characterisation of soil-steel interface shearing behaviour. Interface shear resistances, as available after large-shear-displacement installation, govern the shaft capacities of axially loaded driven piles and suction caissons; they also affect their lateral responses and the behaviour of large diameter monopiles. Large-displacement ring shear soil-steel interface testing employing pre-shearing stages is the industry-recognised approach for characterising interface resistance, particularly when large displacements are expected. This paper reports suites of interface shear tests conducted with Bishop ring shear apparatus on onshore-sampled low-to-medium plasticity Bolders Bank till as part of the PISA JIP Cowden site characterisation. The outcomes are compared with earlier testing studies on Cowden till to identify how soil grading variations, interface characteristics (material type, surface roughness), testing conditions and normal effective stress affect interface resistance. The tests reported should aid those designing soil testing strategies and/or making preliminary design studies involving similar low-to-medium plasticity silty-sandy glacial sediments. 

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

2 - Site characterization, in-situ and laboratory testing, measurement