Mechanical and deformation analyses of pile foundation for supporting structure of off-shore wind turbine at Changhua coast in Taiwan

Abstract:

This study investigates the bearing capacities and mechanical behaviors of pile foundation installed on the seabed of wind farm near Chang-Hua coast of western Taiwan for the supporting structure of offshore wind turbine. A series of three-dimensional (3-D) numerical modeling of pile foundation subjected to various types of combined loading were carried out using Plaix-3D finite element program to investigate the interactive behaviors between soil and pile. In the numerical modeling, pile diameter, pile length and pile spacing were selected as design parameters to inspect their effects on the bearing capacities and deformation behaviors of the pile foundation. For a specific design parameter combination, one can obtain the corresponding loading-displacement curve, various ultimate bearing capacities, V-H (Vertical-Horizontal combined loading) ultimate bearing capacity envelope, and p-ycurve of pile foundation.

Numerical results indicate that: (1) Large displacement and plastic points at ultimate state mostly distribute and concentrate in the topsoil of seabed and around pile head. (2) The soil resistance on the soil-pile interface is ascending with the increases of depth, pile diameter and pile length. (3) The vertical and horizontal bearing capacities of pile group increase significantly with the increase of pile diameter. (4) The vertical and bending moment capacities of pile group increase greatly with the increase of pile length whereas the horizontal capacity is almost insensitive to pile length. (5) The bending moment of pile is highly influenced by the pile spacing. (6) For different design parameters, the shape of ultimate bearing capacity envelopes of pile group on V-H plane is similar while the envelopes will expand as the design parameters increase. For different loading levels of bending moment, the envelopes on V-H plane will contract gradually as the bending moment loading increasing.