Predicting Long Term Performance of OWT Foundation using Cyclic Simple Shear Apparatus and DEM Simulations

Under cyclic loading, most soils change their characteristics. Cyclic behaviour (change of shear modulus and accumulated strain) of the RedHill 110 sand was investigated by a series of cyclic simple shear tests. The effects of application of 50,000 cycles of shear loading with different shear strain amplitudes and vertical stresses were investigated. The results correlated quite well with the observations from scaled model tests of different types of offshore wind turbine foundations and limited field observations. Specifically, the test results showed that shear modulus increases rapidly in the initial loading cycles and then the rate of increase diminishes; the rate of increase depends on strain amplitude, initial relative density and vertical pressure. Complementary DEM simulations were performed using PFC2D to analyse the micromechanics underlying the cyclic behaviour of soils. It shows that the change of soil behaviour strongly related to the rotation of principle axes of fabric and degree of fabric anisotropy