• KEPCO Journal on Electric Power and Energy
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.31-36
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• 2022

This paper presents the measuring process of dynamic properties of offshore wind power foundation and provides consideration of each step. This Guideline enables to maintain consistent measuring procedure and therefore increase the reliability of test results. Small scaled suction bucket foundation was fabricated to represent the commercial support structure installation mechanism and two cases(free-free, free-fixed) of dynamic tests were performed at workshop. From the tests, the importance of dynamic properties of connection part between suction bucket and tower was figured out. More over, types and configuration of measuring devices are recommended which can help find the natural frequency of wind turbine foundation correctly. In field test, it was found that the natural frequency of suction bucket foundation was increased linearly with the penetration depth due to the confining effect of ambient soil. Meanwhile, it was not easy to get an enough excitation force with normal impact hammer because the N.F of suction bucket model was in the lower range of 0 Hz ~ 5 Hz. Therefore, new excitation method which has enough force and can excite lower frequency range was devised. This study will help develop safety check procedure of suction bucket foundation in field at each installation stage using the N.F measurement.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.91-98
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• 2012

In this paper, the behavior of offshore wind turbine(OWT) foundation which is modeled by using existing design method and FEM is compared. When the same type of foundation is designed under the same sea and ground condition, the behavior characteristics with each model are compared. As a result, the member forces between apparent fixity and distributed spring type foundation which consider the ground stiffness are not different markedly, while fixed-base type foundation shows relatively lower member forces, which results in smaller safety margin. In other words, considering ground stiffness is reasonable because soil-pile interaction affects significantly on the analysis result. A case study with a monopile shows significant errors between p-y and FEM model at the head and tip of the pile. Also, it shows that the errors at the tip with diameter increase of the pile is larger. Thus, considering ground characteristics and engineering judgment are necessary in practice. A comparison of reliability analysis between tripod and monopile type foundation on the same condition shows larger probability of failure in monopile type and it indicates that the safety margin of monopile type can be lower.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.35 no.11
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• pp.97-110
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• 2019

Piles that support offshore wind turbine structures are dominantly subjected to cyclic lateral loads of wind, waves, and tidal forces. For a successful design, it is imperative to investigate the behavior of the cyclic laterally loaded piles; the p-y curve method, in which the pile and soil are characterized as an elastic beam and nonlinear springs, respectively, has been typically utilized. In this study, model pile tests were performed in a 1 g gravitational field so as to investigate the p-y behaviors of cyclic laterally loaded piles installed in saturated dense silty sand. Test results showed that cyclic lateral loads gradually reduced the overall stiffness of the p-y curves (initial stiffness and ultimate soil reaction). This is because the cyclic lateral loads disturbed the surrounding soil, which led to the decrement of the soil resistance. The decrement effects of the overall stiffness of the p-y curves became more apparent as the magnitude of cyclic lateral load increased and approached the soil surface. From the test results, the cyclic p-y curve was developed using a p-y backbone curve method. Pseudo-static analysis was also performed with the developed cyclic p-y curve, confirming that it was able to properly predict the behaviors of cyclic laterally loaded pile installed in saturated dense silty sand.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.09a
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• pp.825-839
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• 2010

The global and domestic market for offshore wind farm is expected to grow fast, and the design and installation of substructure and foundation is getting more important. As for the offshore wind farms located in the shallow(depth < 20m) water, the construction and installation of the substructure and foundation makes up about 1/4 ~1/3 of the offshore wind farm construction cost, and the portion is expected to increase because the turbine capacity is increasing from 2 ~ 3MW to 5MW or larger and the water depth of wind farms is also increasing over 30m. As a foundation for offshore wind turbine, the suction caisson foundation is being considered to be a highly competitive alternative to the conventional monopile or gravity based structure, because it has features suitable for the offshore construction such as quick installation, no heavy equipment for penetration and no hammering noise for driving. In order to study the installation behaviour of the suction caisson, laboratory tests were performed with sand. The pore water pressure and displacement were measured to analyze the suction pressure during penetration, the penetration speed and the amount of heaving.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.03a
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• pp.70-77
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• 2010

In this paper, a case study of drivability and bearing capacity of large diameter steel pipe piles at PTT LNG site in Thailand is introduced. The LNG facilities were designed to be founded on steel pipe pile foundations driven into the weathered rock formation overlaid by sand layers. The drivability analyses of open ended pipe piles were carried out using GRL WEAP program and the bearing capacities of the piles were estimated. Dynamic load tests were performed to evaluate end bearing resistance, and it is shown that the measured end bearing resistance is smaller than the calculated end bearing because the plugging does not develop sufficiently in case of large diameter pipe piles.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.613-620
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• 2002

Sand Compaction Pile(SCP) is a soil improvement method that a sand charge is introduced into the pipe, and the pipe is withdrawn part away while the sand pile is compacted and its diameter is enlarged. The sand used in this method should be of good quality. In Korea, crushed stone and washed sea sand are used frequently in SCP. However, use of these materials is restricted because of environmental problem and deficiency of supply. In the copper smelting process, about 0.7 million tons of copper slag are produced in Korea. The range of particle size distribution of copper slag is from 0.15mm to 5mm, so it can be a substitute for sand, and the relatively high specific gravity compared with the sand, is its characteristic. Copper slag is hyaline and so stable environmentally that in foreign country, such as Japan, Germany etc., it is widely used in harbor, revetment and offshore structure construction works. Therefore, in this study, the several laboratory tests were peformed to evaluate the applicability of copper slag as a substitute for sand of SCP. From the mechanical property test, the characteristics of sand and copper slag were compared and analyzed, and from laboratory model test, the strength of composite ground was compared and analyzed by monitoring the stress and ground settlement of clay, SCP and copper slag compaction pile. Specially, this study focused on the application of copper slag as sand substitute in SCP pilot tests based on laboratory tests results.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.383-393
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• 2024

Monopile foundations of offshore wind turbines embedded in soft clay are subjected to the long-term cyclic lateral loads induced by winds, currents, and waves, the vibration of monopile leads to the accumulation of pore pressure and cyclic strains in the soil in its vicinity, which poses a threat to the safety operation of monopile. The researchers mainly focused on the hysteretic stress-strain relationship of soft clay and kinds of stiffness degradation models have been adopted, which may consume considerable computing resources and is not applicable for the long-term bearing performance analysis of monopile. In this study, a modified cyclic stiffness degradation model considering the effect of plastic strain and pore pressure change has been proposed and validated by comparing with the triaxial test results. Subsequently, the effects of cyclic load ratio, pile aspect ratio, number of load cycles, and length to embedded depth ratio on the accumulated rotation angle and pore pressure are presented. The results indicate the number of load cycles can significantly affect the accumulated rotation angle of monopile, whereas the accumulated pore pressure distribution along the pile merely changes with pile diameter, embedded length, and the number of load cycles, the stiffness of monopile can be significantly weakened by decreasing the embedded depth ratio L/H of monopile. The stiffness degradation of soil is more significant in the passive earth pressure zone, in which soil liquefaction is likely to occur. Furthermore, the suitability of the "accumulated rotation angle" and "accumulated pore pressure" design criteria for determining the required cyclic load ratio are discussed.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.343-350
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• 2015

Extensive discussion on the optimal types of offshore wind turbine(OWT) among monopile, tripod and jacket in the intermediate depth of water has been actively carried out in worldwide wind turbine industry. Selecting the optimal types of OWT among several substructural types, it is required to consider the economic and technical feasibility including dynamically stable design of a wind turbine system. In this study, the effects of loading levels and uncertainties of soil properties on the natural frequency of OWT have been quantitatively investigated. In conclusion, the natural frequency of monopile-type OWTs has a significant level of uncertainty, hence it is very important to minimize the level of uncertainties in soil properties when the monopile is selected as a foundation for an OWT.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2016

Recently, offshore wind farms are increasingly expected, because there are huge resource and large site in offshore. Jeju island has optimum condition for constructing a wind energy farm. Unlike the mainland, Jeju island has stratified structure distribution between rock layers sediments due to volcanic activation. In these case, it can be occur engineering problems in whole structures as well as the safety of foundation as the thickness and distribution of sediment under top rock layer can not support sufficiently the structure. In this study, field lateral load test of the pile for analyzing lateral behavior of the offshore wind turbine which is embedded in basalt. After calculating the subgrade resistance and the horizontal deflection from the measured strain to derive p-y curve from the lateral load test results, the subgrade resistance amplifies the error in the process of differentiation and the error of piecewise polynomial curve fitting is the smallest. In order to calculate the horizontal deflection from the measured strain, the six-order polynomial was used.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.98-106
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• 2013

Seismic fragility curves for an offshore wind-turbine structure were obtained. The dynamic response of an offshore wind turbine was analyzed by considering the nonlinear behavior of layered soil and the added mass effect due to seawater. A pile-soil interaction effect was considered by using nonlinear p-y, t-z curves. In the analysis, the amplification effect of ground acceleration through layered soil was considered by applying ground motion to each of the soil layers. The vertical variation in ground motion was found by one-dimensional free-field analysis of ground soils. Fragility curves were determined by damage levels in terms of tower stress and nacelle displacements that were found from static pushover analysis of the wind-turbine structure.