A Study On Bearing Capacity Performance Of Large-Diameter Monopile Foundation Under Lateral Loads

Wind Power Generation is an important form of current wind energy usage, which is also one of the mature technologies in utilization of renewable sources. Offshore wind farm has caught much attention from various countries in the world for its advantages of high velocity, low turbulence, boost output, ect. Large diameter steel monopile foundation mainly constituted of a steel pile3.5～5.0m in diameter has been the standard form of the offshore wind turbine foundations. Compared with the other forms of foundations, monopile foundation has been gradually used and extended in the construction of offshore wind farm for its light dead weight, simple structure, short marine construction period and high reproducibility.Large diameter steel monopile foundation bears horizontal load、vertical load and bending moment when servicing and its carrying capacity in horizontal load is quite more important to the stability according to the practical experience of the past. So considering the stress characteristics of the offshore turbine foundation, It is necessary to carry out comprehensive research including systematic theoretical analysis and numerical calculation on the failure mechanism and bearing capacity character of the foundation which will provide theoretical basis and technical reserve for the design and construction of offshore wind turbines in our country. Therefore, this paper mainly discusses the failure mechanism and bearing capacity character of the monopile foundation in soft soil. The main contents have been researched in this paper are:By using the finite element analysis software-ABAQUS, a three dimensional finite element modeling of Large diameter steel monopile foundation in soft soil under horizontal loading condition has been analyzed on the basis of Mohr-Coulomb yield criterion of completely elastic-plastic constitutive model. The horizontal load eigenvalue of the monopile foundation has been defined. By analyzing different parameters of the model, the characteristic that the horizontal load of the Large diameter steel monopile foundation in soft soil would increase as the shear strength of UU test and the diameter of steel pipe monopile increase has also been investigated and will provide reference to engineering practice.