• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.245-253
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• 2020

In this study, natural frequencies are compared using several pile-soil interaction (PSI) models to evaluate the effects of each model on resonance safety checks for a monopile type of wind turbine structure. Base spring, distributed spring, and three-dimensional brick-shell models represented the PSIs in the finite element model. To analyze the effects of the PSI models on a natural frequency, after a stiffness matrix calculation and Winkler-based beam model for base spring and distributed spring models were presented, respectively; natural frequencies from these models were investigated for monopiles with different geometries and soil properties. These results were compared with those from the brick-shell model. The results show that differences in the first natural frequency of the monopiles from each model are small when the small diameter of monopile penetrates hard soil and rock, while the distributed spring model can over-estimate the natural frequency for large monopiles installed in weak soil. Thus, an appropriate PSI model for natural frequency analyses should be adopted by considering soil conditions and structure scale.