The monopile has proven to be the preferred foundation solution for offshore wind turbines inshallow water and this is mainly due to its simplicity of design, fabrication and installation which leads to itbeing an economically sound foundation solution. The rounds 2 and 3 of the UK offshore wind farms are locatedat ever deeper water, some at the deepest waters wind turbines have ever been set to be installed. During the past5 years several foundation solutions have been proposed for deepwater application and they mainly comprise ofa number of foundation elements such as tripod system and the hybrid monopile-footing foundation system. Thehybrid system, which comprises of a monopile and a bearing plate attached to the pile at mudline, has proven tosignificantly enhance the lateral capacity of the monopile. This paper reports the results of a series of centrifugetests (to recreate prototype stress and load conditions) carried out to investigate the behavior of the hybrid systemin Sand. Furthermore, the results of a series of 3D finite element analyses (using ICFEP) have been reported.
展开▼
