Open Access

Presentation on ongoing test campaign on buckling of embedded piles, which is part of the VERBATIM-Project.

Dieser Kurzvortragg erläutert nichtlineare Phänomene die angesichts der aktuell wachsenden Dimensionen von Monopfahlgründungen für Offshorewindenergieanlagen zunehmend an Bedeutung gewinnen. Insbesondere wird dabei auf das Pfahlfußbeulen sowie das Schalenbeulen des bereits installierten Pfahles eingegangen.

An assessment of the elastic-plastic buckling limit state for multi-strake wind turbine support towers poses a particular challenge for the modern finite element analyst, who must competently navigate numerous modelling choices related to the tug-of-war between meshing and computational cost, the use of solvers that are robust to highly nonlinear behaviour, the potential for multiple near-simultaneously critical failure locations, the complex issue of imperfection sensitivity and finally the interpretation of the data into a safe and economic design. This paper reports on an international ‘round-robin’ exercise conducted in 2022 aiming to take stock of the computational shell buckling expertise around the world which attracted 29 submissions. Participants were asked to perform analyses of increasing complexity on a standardised benchmark of an 8-MW multi-strake steel wind turbine support tower segment, from a linear elastic stress analysis to a linear bifurcation analysis to a geometrically and materially nonlinear buckling analysis with imperfections. The results are a showcase of the significant shell buckling expertise now available in both industry and academia. This paper is the first of a pair. The second paper presents a detailed reference solution to the benchmark, including an illustration of the Eurocode-compliant calibration of two important imperfection forms.

The risk of pile base buckling is a major reason for high pile wall thicknesses in monopiles. The VERBATIM project - Verification of the buckling detection and behaviour of large monopiles - aimed to investigate buckling phenomena related to both the plastic deformation of the pile tip during installation and the buckling of the embedded pile near the seabed. Numerical models were developed and validated on the basis of extensive tests. This enables a better understanding of the buckling behaviour in order to reduce the wall thickness, which allows cost savings in the amount of steel and the development of safer and optimised structures. The previous design procedures were able to ensure the successful installation of the monopiles. However, as the size of monopiles continues to increase, the development of improved design methods for safe and cost-effective foundations is becoming increasingly important. The presentation provides an overview of the investigations carried out and the results.

Large-diameter monopiles are the most common foundation structures for offshore wind turbines. One relevant failure mode during installation is plastic failure of the pile tip which may increase progressively during further driving (pile tip buckling; extrusion buckling). This paper presents the details and results of a large-scale field-test campaign with dynamic pile installation for the validation and calibration of different numerical approaches concerning pile-tip buckling phenomena. The phenomenology of observed pile-tip failures is here described in detail and a first quantitative approach is evaluated based on the field-test data. As the number of new projects continues to grow and the necessity to construct wind farms in challenging terrain increases, such field data-sets will become increasingly relevant.