Pile Soil Analysis (PISA) Project

Joint-industry project: Improved design methods for

laterally loaded piles

Morten Albjerg Liingaard

DONG Energy

Presentation by
PISA Academic Work Group (AWG)

Pile Soil Analysis (PISA) Project

~3.5m JIP to improve monopile design for offshore wind

Wind
p-y method
Nacelle

Beam
elements
Tower

Wave

Transition
peice

Monopile
8
2
8
P-y springs

1
 Shortcoming of Existing Design Methods
Offshore Wind Oil and Gas Design Design Problems?

Moment as function of wind speed

Moment induced in pile

Nacelle

Tower

Moment induced in pile

Transition
piece

Monopile (Hald et al., 2009)

Wind speed [m/s]

Shortcoming of Existing Design Methods

Offshore Wind Oil and Gas Design Design Problems?

Underestimation of measured
frequency
Nacelle
Frequency deviation [%]

Tower

Transition
(Kallehave et al., 2012)
piece

Monopile

2
 DiscretionaryProjectSteering Committee NonOWAPartners

AcademicWorkGroup ProjectPartnerTechnicalExperts

LeadPartner IndependentTechnicalReviewPanel

Principal Investigator: Professor Byron Byrne

Professor Guy Houlsby, Dr Harvey Burd, Dr Chris Martin, Chairman: Professor Gudmund Eiksund
Dr Ross McAdam

Project Manager:
Jesper Skov Gretlund Liv Hamre Dr Fabian Kirsch
Professor Lidija Zdravkovic, Dr Ken Gavin,
Dr David Taborda, Dr Paul Doherty, Technical Manager:
Professor David Potts, Dr David Igoe Miguel Pacheco Andrade
Professor Richard Jardine Tim Camp Professor Werner Rucker

AssistingConsultants TestingContractors

Testing
UXO Consultant Testing Assistance Management Steel Supplier Pile Fabricator Fibre Optic Supplier Pile Installation

Structural Designer and Principal Testing

Advanced Numerical Modelling SI Supervision Contractor Site Preparation Laboratory Testing CPT Investigation Site Investigation

High Level Overview

3
Method Development

High quality FE modelling

Robust extraction of data from FE work

Comparison of extracted data to current design methodologies

Identification of improvements to current methods and

additional components of model

Comparison of new approach to FE simulations and current

design methods

Development and execution of field testing program to provide

benchmark data at a range of pile sizes

High Level Overview

3D FE Field testing

Design

Validate

Develop
Accurate response prediction
Simplified 1D model

Apply

4
 Current Method New Method

M
H

z
p

Short Pile Clay (L = 20 m, D = 10 m)

18
FE
16
+ base moment = 1D Model
14 + distributed moment
Horizontal Load (MN)

12 + base shear
10 distributed load (p-y)
8

6 API / DNV

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Ground Displacement (m)

5
 Site Selection
Cowden - stiff, over-
consolidated clay site

Dunkirk Dense sand site

Existing characterisation
used as a basis for FE
modelling

Additional characterisation
completed

Field Test Program - Layout

0.762 m
Diameter 2m
Diameter

12m 2.7m

21m

0.273 m
Diameter

2 Sites 28 pile tests monotonic and cyclic

6
Large diameter piles Small piles

Medium
diameter
piles

7
Monotonic Test Result

FE
Horizontal Load

API / DNV

Ground Displacement

8
 Concluding Remarks

Next generation monopile foundations will be large

Deeper water
Larger turbines

New design methods needed for optimisation

Developed from numerical analysis
Benchmarked against field testing
Monotonic and cyclic loading
Results here suggest reduction of steel by 30% compared with the
API / DNV method leading to significant savings in installation costs
Final report to be submitted in April 2016

PISA A great example of industry and academia working

together to solve important technical challenges

Acknowledgements

Professor Byron Byrne, University of Oxford

Principal investigator of the PISA Academic Work Group (AWG)

Professor Lidija Zdravkovic, Imperial College London

PISA Academic Work Group (AWG)