Undrained Bearing Capacity of Suction Caissons for Offshore Wind Turbine Foundations by Numerical Limit Analysis

Determining the ultimate capacity of suction caissons in response to combined vertical, horizontal, and moment loading is essential for their design as foundations for offshore wind turbines. However, the method implemented for stability analysis is quite limited. Numerical limit analysis has an advantage over traditional limit equilibrium methods and nonlinear finite element methods in this case because upper and lower bounds can be achieved to ensure that the exact ultimate capacity of the caisson falls within the appropriate range. This article presents theories related to numerical limit analysis. Simulations are conducted for centrifuge model tests, the findings of which reveal the ability of numerical limit analysis to deal with the inclined pullout capacity of suction caissons. Finally, this article proposes an estimation of the ultimate capacity of a 3.5 MW offshore wind turbine foundation on normally consolidated clay based on the typical environmental parameters of Bothkennar, Scotland. Undrained failure envelopes and safety factors are obtained for suction caissons with different embedment ratios. Failure mechanisms, plastic zones, clay stress distributions, and the influence of the skin friction coefficients of caissons are discussed in detail.     

海上风电塔架基础的新型吸力锚研发

海上风电作为一种清洁能源,其开发利用越来越受到世界各沿海国家的重视.吸力锚基础是海洋工程中的一种新型基础型式,广泛应用于海洋平台、海洋浮动式结构等.近年来,也被作为海上风电工程塔架的基础,此海上风电塔架的基础部分是整个工程结构的重要组成部分,它涉及到整个风电结构的安全性,是工程可靠运行的前提.在深入研究已有塔架的基础上...     

海上风机吸力式桶形基础承载特性研究综述

风机基础作为海上风机整体结构的重要组成部分,承受着上部风机所受到的风浪流荷载,并且对风机的安全性及可靠性至关重要。吸力式桶形基础由于其安装简单和可重复利用等优点,在海洋平台基础中得到了广泛应用,并逐步应用于海上风机基础中。但由于海上风机与海洋平台在海洋环境中的荷载工况有一定的差别,仍需要通过对其承载特性研究现状进行全面认识,以实现吸力式桶形基础在海上风机基础中的可靠应用。文中通过总结和评价现有研究对桶形基础在不同土体条件以及荷载条件下进行试验及数值模拟分析得到的研究结果,综述了静荷载和循环荷载作用下砂土和黏土中的吸力式桶形基础的承载特性研究现状,以及海上风机吸力式桶形基础的相关研究。文章展望了目前应用于海上风机基础的桶形基础仍缺乏的研究,为海上风机吸力式桶形基础的可靠应用及后续研究提供重要参考。     

Penetration Resistance of Skirt-Tip with Rough Base for Suction Caissons in Clay

China Ocean Engineering - Suction caissons can readily penetrate into the seabed under the combination of the self-weight and suction resulted from the encased water being increasingly pumped out....     

Earth Pressure on Caissons in Marine Clay Under Cyclic Loading

Coastal protection is proposed to be made out of a contiguous caisson type of wall. These caissons can be designed to resist both lateral static and cyclic loading. With adequate depth of embedment, the walls can be designed to offer significant lateral passive resistance to counteract the lateral static and cyclic loading arising out of wave action. This article describes a set of laboratory tests on model caissons embedded into soft marine clay with different embedment depths. Specially designed earth pressure cells are embedded into the caisson at different depths. A pneumatic system was used to apply lateral static and cyclic loading. Test beds were prepared conforming to soft clay conditions in a test tank of appropriate size. The test results reveal that with this type of arrangement the variation in earth pressure with depth can be conveniently established. The earth pressure developed is related to the lateral load applied. The depth at which the maximum earth pressure occurs is same for both static and cyclic loading. Further, under cyclic loading there is no failure encountered even under cyclic loading level corresponding to 0.9 times the ultimate static lateral capacity.     

Studies on Suction-Assisted Installation Behavior of Suction Caissons in Clay Under Various Undrained Shear Strengths

Suction caissons are widely used for anchoring floating platform and offshore wind turbines. Penetration of the suction caisson into the desired position under the combination of its self-weight and applied suction resulted from pumping out the encased water is integral to practical engineering. Model tests were carried out to investigate the suctionassisted installation of suction caissons in clay under various undrained shear strengths. It was found that there exists a critical penetration dep...     

Study on Gyroscopic Effect of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines

Compared with bottom-fixed wind turbines,the supporting platform of a floating offshore wind turbine has a larger range of motion,so the gyroscopic effects of the system will be more obvious.In this paper,the mathematical analytic expression of the gyroscopic moment of a floating offshore wind turbine is derived firstly.Then,FAST software is utilized to perform a numerical analysis on the model of a spar-type horizontal axis floating offshore wind turbine,OC3-Hywind,so as to verify the correctness of the theoretical analytical formula and take an investigation on the characteristics of gyroscopic effect.It is found that the gyroscopic moment of the horizontal axis floating offshore wind turbine is essentially caused by the vector change of the rotating rotor,which may be due to the pitch or yaw motion of the floating platform or the yawing motion of the nacelle.When the rotor is rotating,the pitch motion of the platform mainly excites the gyroscopic moment in the rotor’s yaw direction,and the yaw motion of the platform largely excites the rotor’s gyroscopic moment in pitch direction,accordingly.The results show that the gyroscopic moment of the FOWT is roughly linearly related to the rotor’s inertia,the rotor speed,and the angular velocity of the platform motion.     

Lateral Bearing Capacity of Modified Suction Caissons Determined by Using the Limit Equilibrium Method

The modified suction caisson (MSC) adds a short-skirted structure around the regular suction caissons to increase the lateral bearing capacity and limit the deflection. The MSC is suitable for acting as the offshore wind turbine foundation subjected to larger lateral loads compared with the imposed vertical loads. Determination of the lateral bearing capacity is a key issue for the MSC design. The formula estimating the lateral bearing capacity of the MSC was proposed in terms of the limit equilibrium method and was verified by the test results. Parametric studies on the lateral bearing capacity were also carried out. It was found that the lateral bearing capacity of the MSC increases with the increasing length and radius of the external skirt, and the lateral bearing capacity increases linearly with the increasing coefficient of subgrade reaction. The maximum lateral bearing capacity of the MSC is attained when the ratio of the radii of the internal compartment to the external skirt equals 0.82 and the ratio of the lengths of the external skirt to the internal compartment equals 0.48, provided that the steel usage of the MSC is kept constant.     

Study on Rigid-Flexible Coupling Effects of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines

In order to account for rigid-flexible coupling effects of floating offshore wind turbines, a nonlinear rigid-flexible coupled dynamic model is proposed in this paper. The proposed nonlinear coupled model takes the higher-order axial displacements into account, which are usually neglected in the conventional linear dynamic model. Subsequently,investigations on the dynamic differences between the proposed nonlinear dynamic model and the linear one are conducted. The results demonstrate that the stiffness of the turbine blades in the proposed nonlinear dynamic model increases with larger overall motions but that in the linear dynamic model declines with larger overall motions.Deformation of the blades in the nonlinear dynamic model is more reasonable than that in the linear model as well.Additionally, more distinct coupling effects are observed in the proposed nonlinear model than those in the linear model. Finally, it shows that the aerodynamic loads, the structural loads and global dynamic responses of floating offshore wind turbines using the nonlinear dynamic model are slightly smaller than those using the linear dynamic model. In summary, compared with the conventional linear dynamic model, the proposed nonlinear coupling dynamic model is a higher-order dynamic model in consideration of the rigid-flexible coupling effects of floating offshore wind turbines, and accord more perfectly with the engineering facts.     

Shaking Table Tests of Four-Bucket Jacket Foundation for Offshore Wind Turbines

As the offshore wind turbine foundation, the four-bucket jacket foundation has a large stiffness and the structure is difficult to be damaged under seismic load. Nevertheless, the saturated subsoil of the four-bucket jacket foundation tends to be liquefied under earthquake, which greatly affects the safety of offshore wind turbine. Therefore, the seismic performance of four-bucket jacket foundation is mainly reflected in the anti-liquefaction capacity of foundation soil. In this paper, the liquefaction resistance of sandy soil of four-bucket jacket foundation for offshore wind turbine is studied. The liquefaction and dynamic response of sandy soil foundation of four-bucket jacket foundation under seismic load are obtained by carrying out the shaking table test, and the influence mechanism of four-bucket jacket foundation on the liquefaction resistance of sandy soil foundation is analyzed.

     

Analysis Procedure of the Cyclic Bearing Capacity for Suction Anchors in Soft Clays

This article presents a procedure to calculate the bearing capacity of suction anchors subjected to inclined average and cyclic loads at the optimal load attachment point using the undrained cyclic shear strength of soft clays based on the failure model of anchors proposed by Andersen et al. The constant average shear stress of each failure zone around an anchor is assumed and determined based on the static equilibrium condition for the procedure. The cyclic shear strength of each failure zone is determined based on the average shear stress. The cyclic bearing capacity is finally determined by limiting equilibrium analyses. Thirty-six model tests of suction anchors subjected to inclined average and cyclic loads were conducted, which include vertical and lateral failure modes. Model test results were predicted using the procedure to verify its feasibility. The average relative error between predicted and test results is 1.7%, which shows that the procedure can be used to calculate the cyclic bearing capacity of anchors with optimal loading. Test results also showed that the anchor was still in vertical failure mode under combined average and cyclic loads if an anchor was in vertical failure mode under static loads. The anchor failure would depend on the vertical resistance degradation under cyclic loads if an anchor was in lateral failure mode under static loads. Cyclic bearing capacities associated with the number of load cycles to failure of 1000 were about 75% and 80% of the static bearing capacity for vertical failure anchors and lateral failure anchors, respectively.     

海上风电楔形单桩基础竖向承载力特性分析

为提高基础利用率增加海上风电设施的可行性，对楔形单桩基础竖向承载力特性进行研究分析。采用PLAXIS 3D 有限元软件建立楔形单桩基础模型，从桩侧摩阻力、桩侧法应力及土体位移对比分析楔形单桩基础与等截面单桩竖向承载特性差异，并探讨内摩擦角、楔角及楔高对承载力的影响。研究表明：楔形单桩基础竖向承载力高于等截面单桩基础，且承载力随着楔角、楔高的增大而增大，提高率最大达24.786%。倾斜侧壁的引入改变了桩侧摩阻力的传递规律；倾斜侧壁挤密桩周土体，桩侧摩阻力与法向应力增大，从而有效提高单桩基础的竖向承载力。研究成果可为今后海上风电单桩基础截面型式的设计提供参考。     

黄河三角洲海上风机新型吸力锚基础型式分析

海上风力发电是未来风电产业的主要趋势,黄河三角洲沿海滩涂地带风能蕴藏量丰富,多为风能富集型,具有很大的开发潜力。但水下黄河三角洲地域条件复杂,广泛发育着不稳定地形地貌,加上波浪荷载和风荷载的联合作用,极易引起海床土体侵蚀液化,直接影响海上风机基础的安全稳定性。在分析了现有海上风电风机基础的优缺点后,针对现有风机基础存在的弊端,提出了一种新型伞式吸力锚基础,并对其结构优势和安装方法做了说明,该新型吸力锚基础独特的结构设计在黄河三角洲地区风电开发中具有一定的应用前景。     

Hydrodynamic Characteristics of Three-Bucket Jacket Foundation for Offshore Wind Turbines During the Lowering Process

The three-bucket jacket foundation is a new type of foundation for offshore wind turbine that has the advantages of fast construction speed and suitability for deep water. The study of the hoisting and launching process is of great significance to ensure construction safety in actual projects. In this paper, a new launching technology is proposed that is based on the foundation of the three-bucket jacket for offshore wind turbine. A complete time domain simulation of the launching process of thr...     

Estimation of Undrained Bearing Capacity for Offshore Soft Foundations with Cyclic Load

The degradation strength of soils under cyclic loading is studied and a method for deter-mining the cyclic degradation strength with cyclic triaxial tests is given in the paper.Furthermore,a dum-my static method for estimating the undrained bearing capacity for offshore soft foundation under waveloads is developed.It can consider the effect of the difference of cyclic stress for different parts of the foun-dation on both the degradation strength of the foundation soil and the bearing capacity so that the esti-mated result can better reflect the real condition of foundation under cyclic loading.The method can be ap-plied to plane and space problem.     

深水平台吸力沉箱基础工程地质问题分析

针对深水平台吸力沉箱基础,讨论了与沉箱安装有关的分析方法及涉及的工程地质参数,分析了承受竖向拉拔荷载、倾斜与水平荷载作用的吸力沉箱极限承载力的分析方法及涉及的工程地质参数,对与吸力沉箱设计有关的其它问题也进行了分析.在此基础上,阐明了与吸力沉箱设计有关的工程场地调查内容及需要确定的工程地质参数.其目的是为开发深水平台吸...     

Experimental Investigation of Local Scour Around A New Pile-Group Foundation for Offshore Wind Turbines in Bi-Directional Current

The local scour around a new pile-group foundation of offshore wind turbine subjected to a bi-directional current was physically modeled with a bi-directional flow flume. In a series of experiments, the flow velocity and topography of the seabed were measured based on a system composed of plane positioning equipment and an ADV. Experimental results indicate that the development of the scour hole was fast at the beginning, but then the scour rate decreased until reaching equilibrium. Erosion would occur around each pile of the foundation. In most cases, the scour pits were connected in pairs and the outside widths of the scour holes were larger than the inner widths. The maximum scour depth occurred at the side pile of the foundation for each test. In addition, a preliminary investigation shows that the larger the flow velocity, the larger the scour hole dimensions but the shorter equilibrium time. The field maximum scour depth around the foundation was obtained based on the physical experiments with the geometric length scales of 1:27.0, 1:42.5 and 1:68.0, and it agrees with the scour depth estimated by the HEC-18 equation.     

海上风机对潮间带地形变化影响的定量遥感监测研究

为科学分析潮间带风电场建设对潮间带滩涂稳定性的影响,文章综述国内外潮间带动态变化分析的研究进展,提出假想沙体表面判别法（HSSD）;从单时相DEM中定量估算海上风机建设引起的潮间带地形变化,分析海上风机建设及运行对近海沙体地形冲淤变化的贡献率和贡献方式;采用增强型水边线法（EWM）构建多时相潮间带DEM,开展潮间带滩涂冲淤变化影响海上风机安全性和稳定性的定量评估。实践应用证明,该方案可用于海上风机对潮间带地形变化影响的定量遥感监测。     

水平循环荷载下海上风电楔形单桩土体变形研究

海上风电工程主要受到风、波浪及洋流等产生的水平循环荷载作用,本文研究楔形单桩基础在水平循环荷载作用下的变形规律,并探讨不同循环荷载对变形规律产生的影响,以确保风电设施正常运行。通过数值模拟建立海上风电单桩-海床模型,考虑土体超孔隙水压力的演变规律及土体致密规律,土体采用UBC3D-PLM本构模型。本文重点讨论并分析在不同水平循环荷载作用下楔形单桩基础与等截面单桩基础的桩周土体位移、塑性应变及桩基累计转角位移之间的差异。研究结果表明：楔形结构会降低桩周土体位移及塑性应变,使得楔形单桩基础旋转中心位置更低,产生倾覆的可能更小,当循环荷载比为0.7时,累计转角位移能减少41.86%;循环荷载越大,楔形单桩基础水平受荷特性越好,累计位移减少量的增长率越高。研究成果可为今后海上风电基础的选择与设计提供参考。     

Finite Element Analysis of Laterally Loaded Suction Caisson in Anisotropic Clay

1 .IntroductionSuctioncaissons have been widely usedfor offshore oil exploration duetothe advantages of econo-my and simple installation over traditional piles (Huanget al .,2003) .For tensionleg platforms andspar platforms in deep ocean,suction caissons …