Abstract
Offshore wind is becoming more attractive day by day due to several reasons, and some of them are scalability in the sense that large power plants can be constructed, higher wind speeds in offshore locations due to lack of obstructions, larger continuous areas and ease of construction. Foundations are one of the critical parts of Offshore Wind Turbine (OWT) systems not only in terms of stability but also from the point of view of costs. Monopile foundations are the most common type of foundation used for OWTs in shallow waters (< 30m). Monopile foundation of OWTs are subjected to a combination of vertical and lateral loads, including the weight of the OWT, waves, winds and machine-generated loads. To predict the response of monopile foundations under lateral loading, it is essential to understand the behaviour of such systems under long term environmental loads such as wind and waves. In this study, a simplified method is developed to predict the lateral load and moment-resisting capacity of a monopile in layered soils. The proposed method was validated through standard (p-y method) and advanced methods (three-dimensional Finite Element method). A case study of a monopile foundation located in London Array was used in the analysis. The study highlighted that results obtained from the proposed method were in good agreement with those calculated by standard and advanced methods. It also shown that the simplified method could be a useful tool for the preliminary design of monopile foundations under lateral loading.