Foundation of an off-shore wind mill is submitted throughout its existence to a very high number of cycles coming from lateral actions such as waves or wind. These actions have a strong aleatory character which makes them very hard to predict, quantify and analyse. Therefore, in current design practice, these actions are being considered as pseudo-static force at their maximum values, with the cyclic phenomenon being neglected. This can lead to an inappropriate design of the foundation, which could have a negative impact on the future structure. This type of structure is generally built on a monopile foundation, a single, large diameter pile, which will be submitted to thousands lateral cycles. The pile diameter plays an important role, influencing the behaviour of the entire structure. Centrifuge experiments on small-scale models are very useful to study such complex problem as piles under lateral cyclic loads. Several researches have been carried out internationally and the results can be used for calibrating numerical models, which is obviously a more accessible method of design, compared to an experimental approach. This has been precisely the starting point of this paper. The purpose of the present paper is to analyse the influence of the pile diameter, by using a FEM a numerical model, previously calibrated based on centrifuge experiments carried out at IFSTTAR Nantes. For the numerical modelling the software CESAR-LCPC 3D has been used. Several pile diameters have been considered, as follows: 0.72 m, 1.08 m, 1.44 m, 1.80 m, 2.16 m and 2.52 m. The results are taking into account the lateral displacement and bending moment of the piles, for static and cyclic loading. The main objective was to determine the stabilisation rate of the most important two design elements (pile head displacement and maximum bending moment) after “n” cycles and to eventually conclude the diameter value beyond which no more influence of cycles is recorded. The numerical model considered 15 cycles and the results have been used extrapolated in order to determine the cycle “n” of stabilisation (for displacement and bending moment).
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