Title:
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Long-term serviceability behaviour of suction
caisson supported offshore wind turbines
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Suction caissons have recently been considered as an alternative to monopile foundations for offshore
wind turbines and met masts. By their nature, such structures have stringent limit states imposed on
their design dictating the first modal frequency and the allowable structural rotations. The aim of this
thesis is to assess how cyclic loading will affect the long-term serviceability behaviour of such an
offshore structure.
The behaviour of such a representative caisson system was assessed through the use of a series of
scale model tests conducted in dry sand, replicating a fully drained prototype condition. These tests
were designed to record the foundation stiffness, its evolution under cyclic loading, how the system
accumulates rotation with loading cycles and the dynamic properties of a caisson system. This was
conducted at a number of scales under single-g and multi-g conditions.
Considering all of the experimentally obtained data it was possible to analyse and provide a
prediction as to the long-term behaviour of such an offshore structure. It was discovered that the
foundation stiffness was highly dependent on the strain level and under the application of cyclic
loading the stiffness would tend to increase in a logarithmic manner. In addition it was found that
when subjected to a cyclic load a caisson system will accumulate rotation in accordance with a power
relationship. Finally the dynamic properties were found to closely match pre-existing formulations
describing a simple dynamic system.
Considering these results it was possible to produce an analytical model to describe the evolution of
serviceability of a caisson founded offshore structure. Latterly this model was applied to a series of
representative cyclic loading test to examine the validity of the complete model.
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