Behavior of monopile foundations under cyclic lateral load

Martin Achmus
*
, Yu-Shu Kuo, Khalid Abdel-Rahman
Institute of Soil Mechanics, Foundation Engineering and Waterpower Engineering, Leibniz University of Hannover, Appelstr. 9A, Hannover 30167, Germany
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 14 May 2008
Received in revised form 5 November 2008
Accepted 7 December 2008
Available online 31 January 2009
Keywords:
Monopile
Offshore wind turbine
Cyclic load
Lateral deformation
Sand
a b s t r a c t
This paper describes the development and application of design charts for monopile foundations of off-
shore wind turbines in sandy soil under long-term cyclic lateral load. It outlines a numerical model,
working with a numerical concept, which makes the calculation of accumulated displacements based
on cyclic triaxial test results possible, and it describes important factors affecting the deformation
response of a monopile to cyclic lateral loads. The effects of pile length, diameter and loading state on
the accumulation rate of lateral deformation are presented and design charts are given, in which a nor-
malized ultimate lateral resistance of a pile is used. For monopiles with very large diameter, the suitabil-
ity of the zero-toe-kick and vertical tangent design critera for determining the required embedded
length is discussed.
2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
The monopile is one foundation option for offshore wind tur-
bines planned in the German parts of the North Sea and the Baltic
Sea. Most of the already existing offshore wind energy converters
are founded on monopiles. However, these turbines have rated
power values of less than 3 MW and are located in relatively shal-
low water (in most cases less than about 10 m depth). For wind
turbines of 5 MW rated power in water depths of 1530 m a mono-
pile foundation would require a diameter of 57.5 mto ensure ade-
quate bearing capacity under lateral load in this harsh
environment. Monopiles of about 5 m diameter have already been
installed in the North Sea by driving, and it is believed that diam-
eters of up to 7.5 m can be executed if suitable driving equipment
is constructed.
Besides the design for the maximum static load, fatigue design
is a very important aspect for offshore structures. The effect of cyc-
lic loading of the soil has to be considered, since the number of
loads due to wind and wave could exceed 10
8
over the lifetime
of the structure. Cyclic loading leads to an accumulation of the pile
head deformation and rotation, which has to be limited to avoid
exceeding the serviceability limit of a wind turbine. In recent pro-
jects, usually a maximum permanent rotation of a monopile at
mudline of 0.5 was required. However, the estimation of accumu-
lated displacements is one of the most difcult tasks for engineer-
ing design.
Although many methods have been proposed for estimating
lateral deformation of a pile in sand under cyclic lateral load, no
generally accepted design procedure yet exists. The standard de-
sign procedure for a laterally loaded offshore pile is the py curve
method, which is described in the guidelines of the American
Petroleum Institute (API) [1]. The py curves formulated for cyclic
loading conditions are based on eld tests with fewer than 200 cy-
cles. Moreover, a major disadvantage is that the resulting deforma-
tions, determined for instance with the LPILE computer program
[2], are independent of the actual number of load cycles. This
means that a prognosis which takes site-specic soil and long-
term cyclic loading due to met-ocean conditions into account is
not possible.
Using sophisticated material laws, in principle the behavior of a
pile under cyclic loads can be simulated cycle by cycle. However,
the rate of displacement accumulation is usually very small, and
thus the accumulation of numerical errors could become large
compared with the displacements to be determined. Thus, such
numerical models with implicit calculation concepts are restricted
to the estimation of pile deections with cycle numbers smaller
than 50 [37].
With explicit methods, semi-empirical approaches are used to
describe the lateral deformation response of a pile with respect
to the number of load cycles. The development of cyclic deforma-
tions dependent on the number of cycles is directly described by
empirical equations [813], or the change of bedding resistance
in subgrade reaction methods with the number of cycles is de-
scribed [14,15]. In the methods of Long and Vanneste [15] and
Lin and Liao [13], the effects of soil density, pile installation meth-
od and the cyclic loading state are taken into account. However,
0266-352X/$ - see front matter 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.compgeo.2008.12.003
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 511 7624155; fax: +49 511 7625105.
E-mail address: achmus@igbe.uni-hannover.de (M. Achmus).
Computers and Geotechnics 36 (2009) 725735
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these methods are based on small-scale laboratory pile test results
or eld tests with a limited number of cycles, and suitability for a
monopile with a large diameter is not clear.
The German guideline for soil exploration and testing with re-
gard to offshore wind turbine foundations [16] suggests cyclic lab-
oratory tests to assess the foundation response under long-term
cyclic loading. However, there is no approved method for taking
into account the results of such tests in the design of piles for accu-
mulated displacements.
The purpose of this study is to apply the results of drained cyclic
triaxial tests on cohesionless soil in a numerical model to estimate
the progressive deformation of a monopile embedded in a sandy
seabed under long-term cyclic lateral load. In the following, the
special numerical concept, the degradation stiffness model, is de-
scribed, and, based on the results of a parametric study, design
charts are presented which may be used as a tool for preliminary
design.
2. Degradation stiffness model
The degradation stiffness model presented in this study is a
method based on a combination of a nite element simulation of
the pilesoil interaction and an evaluation of drained cyclic triaxial
tests.
In cyclic triaxial tests, the accumulation of plastic strains with
the number of cycles under different loading conditions can be ob-
served. This increase of plastic strain can be interpreted as a de-
crease in soil secant stiffness. Assessing the stress conditions in
the distinct elements and introducing the stiffness degradation ob-
tained by comparison with the cyclic test results in the nite ele-
ment model yields the accumulated deformations of the pilesoil
system. This is the basic concept of this model. Of course the pile
installation by driving leads to a disturbance of the soil around
the pile. This effect is omitted in the nite element model. How-
ever, the disturbance is limited to a zone of relatively small thick-
ness around the pile, whereas the soil in a much larger zone is
object to stress increase due to horizontal loading.
In application, the nite element program ABAQUS [17] is used.
The model of a monopile foundation under monotonic lateral load
presented by Abdel-Rahman and Achmus [18] is used in this study
as a basis for cyclic analysis. For the simulation of the soil behavior,
an elasto-plastic material with MohrCoulomb failure criterion is
used. To account for the stress-dependence of the oedometric stiff-
ness modulus E
s
an increase with depth is assumed according to
the equation
E
s
j r
at

r
m
r
at

k
1
where r
at
is the atmospheric pressure, j and k are material con-
stants and r
m
is the mean principal stress. Contact interaction be-
tween the soil and pile elements is modelled by contact elements
with the contact friction angle d taken as two thirds of the soil fric-
tion angle u. The soil parameters for monotonic loading used in the
model are given in Table 1.
In Fig. 1 exemplary results of calculated load-deformation
curves of a monopile with embedded length L = 30 m, pile diameter
D = 7.5 m and pile wall thickness t
p
= 0.09 m in dense sand are gi-
ven. With a variation of the moment arm h dened in Fig. 1, differ-
ent combinations of horizontal and moment loading can be
considered. In the numerical calculations of cyclic behavior, the
pipe section of the monopile is replaced by a solid section pile with
equivalent bending stiffness. Comparisons with the results of an
exact modelling of the pipe section conrmed the suitability of this
simplication.
The degradation stiffness approach to account for cyclic loading
effects is elucidated in Fig. 2. In a cyclic triaxial test, an increase of
the plastic axial strain can be observed. Assuming the elastic strain
to be negligible, the degradation rate of secant stiffness after rst
cycle E
s1
and Nth cycle E
sN
can be presented by the plastic axial
strains after rst cycle e
a
cp;N1
and after Nth cycle e
a
cp;N
according
to the following equation:
E
sN
E
s1

e
a
cp;N1
e
a
cp;N
2
The accumulation of plastic strains in a cyclic triaxial test can be
estimated from existing semi-empirical approaches of Huurman
[19], Gotschol [20] and Werkmeister [21]. Here Huurmans formula
[19] is considered, and with it the degradation of stiffness can be
described using two material parameters b
1
and b
2
as follows:
Table 1
Material parameters used for dense sand and medium dense sand.
Parameter Dense sand Medium dense sand
Unit buoyant weight c
0
s
11 kN/m
3
11 kN/m
3
Oedometric stiffness parameter j 600 400
Oedometric stiffness parameter k 0.55 0.60
Poissons ratio m 0.25 0.25
Internal friction angle u
0
37.5 35
Dilation angle w 7.5 5
Cohesion C 0.1 kN/m
2
0.1 kN/m
2
Fig. 1. Static load-deformation curves of a monopile.
726 M. Achmus et al. / Computers and Geotechnics 36 (2009) 725735
E
sN
E
s1

e
a
cp;N1
e
a
cp;N
N
b
1
X
b
2
3
here N is the number of load cycles and X is the cyclic stress ratio
dened by Huurman [19] for cohesionless material as follows:
X
r
1;cyc
r
1;sf
4
where r
1,sf
is the major principal stress at static failure state and
r
1,cyc
is the major principal stress for the cyclic stress state under
consideration. The cyclic stress ratio is thus dependent on the con-
ning pressure and on the cyclic stress level.
A problem to be dealt with is that the Eqs. (3) and (4) are valid
for triaxial test conditions with isotropic initial stress conditions
and a constant conning pressure r
3
during cyclic loading. In the
pilesoil system, the initial stress conditions (before application
of the horizontal load) are anisotropic and the minor principal
stress in the elements as well as the direction of the principal stress
axes in general change with the application of the load. This is elu-
cidated in Fig. 3. To overcome this problem, a characteristic cyclic
stress ratio X
c
is dened here as
X
C

X
1
X
0
1 X
0
5
here the index
(1)
means the cyclic stress ratio at loading phase and
the index
(0)
means at unloading phase (cf Fig. 4). At the initial (and
unloading) phase, only the vertical load V due to the tower weight is
considered, and the lateral load H is applied subsequently in the
loading phase. The characteristic cyclic stress ratio is derived from
the difference between the stress ratios in the loading and the
unloading phase. Due to the denominator in Eq. (5) this value varies
from 0 to 1. The accumulation of plastic strain and the degradation
of stiffness of the soil element can be obtained from Eq. (3) by
replacing X by X
c
.
In the last step of the simulation (model C in Fig. 4), the defor-
mation response of the system is analyzed using the degradation
stiffnesses E
sN
obtained from models A and B with respect to Eqs.
Fig. 2. Degradation of secant modulus under cyclic loading in the pilesoil model (schematic).
Fig. 3. Variation of principal stresses in the pilesoil system in initial phase and cyclic loading phase.
M. Achmus et al. / Computers and Geotechnics 36 (2009) 725735 727
(3) and (5). Poissons ratio is assumed to remain constant in the
three discrete nite element models.
From cyclic triaxial test results documented in the literature,
typical regression parameters b
1
and b
2
were found for dense sand
to be b
1
= 0.20, b
2
= 5.76 and for medium dense sand b
1
= 0.16,
b
2
= 0.38 (Kuo [22]). These values were used in the parametric
study.
The monopiles with large diameter are driven in the eld. The
installation of piles leads to a change of stress in the soil around
the pile as well as a change of the soil properties in the distorted
area close to the pile. When the monopile is subjected to a lateral
load, the area with stress variation in soil due to lateral loading is
much larger than the area with stress changing close to the pile
due to pile driving. Hence, the change of stress in soil and the soil
properties in the pile installation phase is omitted in the degrada-
tion stiffness model.
A cyclic triaxial test by Timmerman and Wu [23] and laboratory
pile tests by Achmus et al. [24] were simulated with the degrada-
tion stiffness model. The results are shown in Figs. 5 and 6. The
permanent deformation responses of a soil element (Fig. 5) and
of a pilesoil system (Fig. 6) are well captured by the degradation
stiffness model.
In Fig. 7, the stiffness degradations resulting from the model for
two systems are compared. The stiffnesses of elements in the plane
of symmetry for one cycle (monotonic load) of a given load combi-
nation and for 100 and 10,000 load cycles are given once for a pile
with a length of 40 m and once for a pile with a length of 20 m.
For the shorter monopile, the soil along the whole length of the pile
is subject to stiffness decrease. For the longer pile, only the soil stiff-
ness in the upper half of the pile degrades signicantly. The soil ele-
ments in the area subjected to active loading, i.e. in the opposite
direction to which the pile is moving, also vary in stiffness as seen
in Fig. 7. However, this stiffness variation in the opposite direction
of loading is negligible for a monopile subjected to one-way cyclic
loading andwill not affect the accumulateddisplacement of the pile.
The deection lines of the two monopiles considered in Fig. 7
are presented in Fig. 8. The monopile with an embedded length
L = 20 m behaves like a short pile and exhibits a more or less rigid
response, whereas the monopile with L = 40 m behaves more ex-
ibly. In both cases the deection increases with the number of cy-
cles and the zero deection point gradually moves down with
cyclic loading. These results correspond with tests of Saglamer
[25]. Since the load for both piles is identical, the long pile has
much less deformation. However, not only the absolute displace-
ments, but also the relative rate of displacement accumulation is
much smaller for the longer pile. This is shown in Fig. 9, where
the relative increase of the pile displacement at seabed level is gi-
ven dependent on the number of load cycles in logarithmic scale.
The head displacement of the long pile is increased after 10,000 cy-
cles by a factor of less than 2, whereas the displacement of the
short pile is nearly 5 times larger than for monotonic loading.
The results are compared with the empirical approaches given in
[11] and [14]. Here the major advantage of the developed numer-
ical model becomes obvious. It seems logical that the rate of dis-
placement accumulation depends on the magnitude of loading,
i.e. the ratio of cyclic load to, for instance, ultimate horizontal load.
Fig. 4. Schematic sketch of the determination of degradation stiffness in the pilesoil system.
Fig. 5. Simulation of plastic strain response in a cyclic triaxial test [23] using the
degradation stiffness model.
Fig. 6. Simulation of lateral pile deection in a 1-g laboratory test [24] using the
degradation stiffness model.
728 M. Achmus et al. / Computers and Geotechnics 36 (2009) 725735
The numerical model is capable of accounting for that, whereas the
results of existing empirical models are independent of the magni-
tude of loading and the system boundary conditions.
The simulation results with the degradation stiffness model
show a reasonable accumulation rate of lateral deformation at sea-
bed level. The effects of loading state and pile geometries are also
demonstrated reasonably by the degradation stiffness model. The
degradation stiffness model is thus well able to simulate a mono-
pile under long-term cyclic lateral load. Although the model of
course needs to be veried by further experimental evidence
(large-scale tests, eld measurements and observations), it seems
to be appropriate for investigating monopile behavior under vari-
ous boundary conditions. In the following, the model is applied
to develop some reference charts for preliminary design.
Fig. 7. Variation of stiffness in two pilesoil systems dependent on the number of load cycles.
Fig. 8. Lateral deection of piles according to the degradation stiffness model.
M. Achmus et al. / Computers and Geotechnics 36 (2009) 725735 729
3. Parametric study and preliminary design charts
3.1. Scope of analyses
Using the numerical model described above, a parametric study
was carried out to identify and quantify the effects of geometric,
subsoil and loading conditions on the behavior of monopiles. The
following ranges of parameters were considered:
Pile geometry: embedded length L: 2040 m, diameter D: 2.5
7.5 m, pile wall thickness: t
p
: 0.09 m.
Loading: one-way lateral load H: 530 MN, moment arm h: 0
40 m, number of load cycles N: 110,000.
Soil types: dense sand and medium dense sand.
To simplify the practical design of monopiles, design charts
based on the results of the parametric study are presented which
make a rough estimation of required pile dimensions for specic
loading conditions possible.
In the design charts, a normalized load is used, which is dened
here as the ratio of the actual lateral load H and the ultimate lateral
resistance of the pile H
u
. Many suggestions have been made for
determining the ultimate lateral resistance H
u
of a single pile.
However, the results obtained by different methods vary widely.
To determine the ultimate lateral load consistent with the numer-
ical model, the H
u
determined from the hyperbolic method sug-
gested by Manoliu et al. [26] is adopted as a reference value in
this study. With this method, y
s
/H is plotted versus y
s
(Fig. 10).
For large head displacements, the obtained curve is approximately
a straight line, and the ultimate resistance is dened as the inverse
of the slope of this line.
3.2. Design charts for monotonic loading condition
Based on the simulation results for monotonic loading, the two
design charts given in Figs. 11 and 12 were developed.
In Fig. 11, the dimensionless lateral head displacement y
s
/L is
plotted versus a dimensionless load value. A similar presentation
of experimental test results has been given by Hettler [11], but
only for purely horizontal loading (h = 0). From the calculation re-
sults given in the left part of Fig. 11, the design chart given on the
right was developed. For the given regression lines the following
equations apply:
Medium dense sand : ln
100y
s
L

1:168ln
Hh L
c
0
s
DL
3
" #
0:544 6
Dense sand : ln
100y
s
L

1:112ln
Hh L
c
0
s
DL
3
" #
0:151 7
with the presentation in Fig. 11, different curves are valid for med-
ium dense and dense sand. If the normalized load H/H
u
is consid-
ered in the design chart, the deformation response can be
estimated by only one curve, shown in Fig. 12.
For a specic case, the lateral head displacement y
s
of the mono-
pile under static loading can be determined with the chart in
Fig. 11. Subsequently, dependent on y
s
the normalized load level
H/H
u
which is needed to assess the behavior under cyclic loading
can be obtained from the chart in Fig. 12.
It should be recognized that the results of the design charts are
independent of the actual pile bending stiffness. In all calculations
a pile wall thickness of 0.09 m was assumed. This means that very
stiff piles, for small embedded lengths and diameters even almost
rigid piles, were considered. Thus, the application of the charts is
restricted to such cases.
3.3. Monopile behavior under cyclic loading
The increase of monopile displacements with the number of
load cycles is illustrated in Figs. 8 and 9. To give a clear presenta-
tion of different effects on the pile performance under cyclic loads,
the increase of head displacement due to 100 load cycles y
s100
/y
s1
is
chosen as a representative value. The effects of embedded pile
length, pile diameter, loading amplitude and load eccentricity on
this value are described below.
Fig. 13 shows the effect of the embedded length for a monopile
with a diameter of 5 m and a load of H = 5 MN acting at h = 20 m
above sea bed level. A decrease of the embedded length leads to
an increase of the normalized load level. According to the numer-
ical results given in Fig. 13, this also leads to a larger accumulation
rate of lateral deformation y
s100
/y
s1
. A straight line can be assumed
to represent the dependence of accumulation rate on the normal-
ized load in the range of the parameters investigated. The dashed
line in Fig. 13 gives an estimation of the performance under higher
load levels. With approach to H/H
u
= 1, of course an overlinear in-
crease of the accumulation rate is to be expected.
The example demonstrates that by decreasing the embedded
pile length L from 30 m to 20 m the accumulation rate increases
from about 1.8 to 2.5. Regarding the displacement under static
loading, Fig. 13 shows that the pile with the shorter length has a
2.3 times larger displacement. This means that after 100 load
Fig. 10. Hyperbolic method to determine the ultimate lateral resistance of a single
pile.
Fig. 9. Comparison with existing methods on accumulated deformation of mono-
piles with D = 7.5 m, t
p
= 0.09 m, L = 20 and 40 m under H = 15 MN at h = 20 m.
730 M. Achmus et al. / Computers and Geotechnics 36 (2009) 725735
cycles the ratio of the absolute pile head displacements is even
about 3.2. Thus, the pile performance under cyclic horizontal load-
ing is as expected very much dependent on the embedded pile
length.
In Fig. 14 the effect of the pile diameter on the cyclic perfor-
mance is shown for exemplary conditions (L = 20 m, H = 10 MN,
h = 4 m). The diameter of course also affects the ultimate load H
u
and thus the normalized load H/H
u
. The same line as in Fig. 13 is
used to describe the dependence of accumulation rate and normal-
ized load.
Comparing piles with diameters of 5 m and 7.5 m, the pile with
the larger diameter has onlyslightly better cyclic performance, since
the normalizedloadlevels inthese cases are not as different as inthe
case of increasing the pile length by 50% considered in Fig. 13. Thus,
to improve monopile performance the increase of the pile length is
much more effective than the increase of pile diameter.
The loading conditions are represented by the amplitude of lat-
eral load H and the moment arm h (with regard to seabed level, see
Fig. 1) of the load. The effect of a variation of the moment arm is
presented in Fig. 15, again in terms of the dependence of the accu-
mulation rate on the normalized load. The larger the moment arm
is, the smaller is the ultimate load and with that the larger is the
normalized load. The numerical results show that again the depen-
dence can approximately be described by the straight line already
used in Figs. 13 and 14.
Finally, in Fig. 16 all the results for y
s100
/y
s1
obtained for a
monopile with a specic geometry (L = 30 m, D = 5 m) are pre-
sented together with the respective performance regarding the pile
head rotation U
s100
/U
s1
. Considering the rotation, a similar perfor-
mance, i.e. an increase of accumulation rate with increasing nor-
malized load, is found. However, the accumulation rate is smaller
than the rate for the displacement. The reason is that with increas-
ing load level the point of rotation of the pile moves towards the
pile tip, so that the pile rotation increase becomes smaller than
the increase of the head displacement. This is of course only valid
if an almost rigid pile is considered.
Fig. 11. Dimensionless displacement of monopiles embedded in dense and medium dense sand under static lateral load.
Fig. 12. Lateral displacement of monopiles under static lateral load with regard to normalized load.
M. Achmus et al. / Computers and Geotechnics 36 (2009) 725735 731
3.4. Design charts for cyclic loading condition
From the numerical results given in Figs. 1316 it is evident
that the cyclic pile performance is mainly dependent on the nor-
malized load level H/H
u
. This can be used for the development of
a design chart regarding cyclic behavior.
In Fig. 17, all accumulation rates obtained in the parametric
study are depicted together. Although a large scatter of the results
is evident, for a rough estimation of the accumulation rate the pre-
sented straight lines and the design chart given in the right part of
Fig. 17 may be used.
3.5. Summary of the design procedure
Using the design charts given in Figs. 11, 12 and 17, a prelimin-
ary design of the required geometry of a monopile in sand soil can
be carried out. The procedure for this is summarized as follows:
(1) Dene the tolerable lateral deformation of the wind tower at
seabed level y
t
.
(2) Determine the cyclic loading level H and h and number of
loading cycle N for design wind and wave load.
(3) Select a pile geometry, i.e. embedded length L and diameter
D. Then assess the lateral deformation of the monopile under
monotonic load from Fig. 11.
(4) From Fig. 12, determine the normalized load through the lat-
eral deformation obtained from step 3.
(5) Select the accumulation rate of lateral deformation from
Fig. 17 via normalized load obtained from step 4.
(6) The lateral deformation of the monopile for the chosen
geometry subjected to N cycles of the design load can be
determined from the accumulation rate obtained in step 5
multiplied by the lateral deformation under monotonic load
assessed in step 3.
(7) If the accumulated deformation exceeds the tolerant lateral
deformation, another pile geometry has to be selected.
An illustrative example of a monopile with L = 30 m and D = 5 m
subjected to a load of H = 15 MN at h = 30 m shall elucidate the use
of the design charts for estimating the lateral deformation after
100 cycles. For a soil with unit buoyant weight of c
0
s
11 kN=m
3
,
the dimensionless parameter Hh L=c
0
s
DL
3
is 0.606. The static re-
sponse obtained from Fig. 11 is y
s
/L = 0.7%, i.e. the static displace-
ment is 21 cm. With y
s
/L = 0.7%, the normalized load H/H
u
is
found by means of the chart in Fig. 12 to H/H
u
= 0.24. The accumu-
lation rate after 100 cycles y
s100
/y
s1
= 2.0 is obtained easily from
Fig. 17, so the lateral displacement at seabed level of the monopile
is 42 cm.
For the nal design, numerical simulations should of course
be carried out with consideration of the specic site conditions.
This means the determination of a detailed soil model and the
assessment of the soil parameters in laboratory investigations
including cyclic triaxial tests to determine the cyclic parameters
b
1
and b
2
used in the proposed degradation stiffness model (see
Eq. (3)).
4. Design criteria concerning the required embedded pile length
The design guidelines for offshore wind turbines presented by
Germanischer Lloyd suggest as a design criterion for horizontally
loaded piles that the pile deection line shall match the zero-toe-
kick or the vertical tangent condition to minimize the risk of
accumulated deformations under cyclic loading [27,28]. This
means that for the loading under consideration, the pile deec-
tion line should exhibit two zero deection points (zero-toe-kick)
or a least a vertical tangent at a certain depth below the point of
rotation. This requirement stems from the idea that a pile
clamped in the soil in this way will be insensitive to cyclic load-
ing and limits the accumulation of pile deection. For offshore
piles of usual diameters up to 2 or 2.5 m, this requirement has
proved to be reachable. However, for very large diameters and
thus very stiff monopiles this requirement leads to very large
embedded lengths.
In Fig. 18, calculation results for monopiles with diameters of
7.5 m and 2.5 m are compared. The smaller monopile exhibits
much larger deformation accumulation than the larger monopile
and thus has, for the loading conditions considered, a worse cyclic
load performance. However, this pile by far fullls the vertical tan-
gent and even the zero-toe-kick criterion, whereas the large diam-
eter pile is too short regarding these criteria, but shows very good
cyclic performance.
Wiemann [29] showed that for large diameter monopiles an in-
crease of the pile length to ensure rigid clamping has almost no ef-
fect on the lateral head displacement under static loading. Thus,
Fig. 14. Effect of pile diameter on the accumulated rate after 100 cycles for a
monopile with L = 20 m, t
p
= 0.09 m, H = 10 MN and h = 4 m.
Fig. 13. Effect of embedded length on the accumulation rate after 100 cycles for a
monopile with D = 5 m, t
p
= 0.09 m, H = 5 MN and h = 20 m.
732 M. Achmus et al. / Computers and Geotechnics 36 (2009) 725735
the rigid clamping criterion is obviously not suitable for large
diameter monopiles.
In fact, the required embedded length of a monopile should de-
pend on the tolerable pile deformation which is to be expected
over the lifetime of the supported structure. Thus, the displace-
ments y
s1
or y
sN
should be limited. A possible design criterion could
be that the accumulated deformation y
s100
should be less than 0.3%
of embedded pile length. For this assumed criterion, the accumula-
tion rate of lateral deformation y
s100
/y
s1
should be less than 1.5 and
the lateral displacement after the rst cycle y
s1
should be less than
0.2% of embedded pile length, for instance (see Figs. 12 and 17).
For monopiles in dense sand with a moment arm of loading of
h = 10 m the pile lengths obtained with this criterion are compared
in Fig. 19 with the pile lengths necessary to ensure zero-toe-kick.
For zero-toe-kick, the required lengths for monopiles with
D = 5 m and D = 7.5 m are 4243 m and 5354 m, respectively, al-
most independent of the lateral load H. Consideration of the sug-
gested design criterion y
s100
/L 6 0.3% (as well as y
s100
/y
s1
6 1.5)
leads to much shorter required lengths, which are of course depen-
dent on the magnitude of loading.
Although the suggested design deformation is just a reference
value, these results make evident that adopting zero-toe-kick or
vertical tangent as design criterion for large diameter monopiles
is too strong and not appropriate.
5. Conclusions
The degradation stiffness model is presented a numerical con-
cept which is able to account for cyclic lateral loading of piles in
the determination of pile deformations in a realistic manner. A ser-
ies of triaxial tests is needed to assess the parameters describing
cyclic behavior of the soil. A comparison of model results with
existing test results for piles in sand shows quite good correspon-
dence. The calibrations for degradation stiffness model with large-
scale model tests are planned in the further researches in the Insti-
tute of Soil Mechanics, Foundation Engineering and Waterpower
Engineering, Leibniz University Hannover.
The degradation stiffness model is used to carry out parametric
studies on the impact of pile geometry, loading conditions and rel-
ative density of sand soil on the cyclic pile performance. It emerges
that the displacement accumulation rate is strongly dependent on
the loading level, i.e. the ratio of actual load to ultimate load. Since
the ultimate load of a horizontally loaded pile is very much depen-
dent on the embedded pile length, the accumulation rate for a gi-
ven load is mainly governed by the embedded length of a
monopile. Of course, the pile diameter also affects the ultimate
load, but not to such an extent.
Based on the results of the parametric study, design charts are
developed for both static and cyclic loading. With these charts the
static displacement of a monopile in sand at seabed level, the
load level and, dependent on the number of load cycles, also
the displacements due to cyclic loading can be determined. The
rough values obtained can be used for the purpose of preliminary
design.
The suitability of the zero-toe-kick or vertical tangent criterion
often used as a design requirement for horizontally loaded offshore
piles is checked for the case of large diameter monopiles and is
found to be inappropriate. Using a maximum tolerable deforma-
tion is recommended instead. However, since the model described
here to determine the cyclic deformations needs more verication,
at the time being conservative approaches should be used in prac-
tical design.
Fig. 16. Accumulated rate of lateral deformation and rotation after 100 cycles for a
monopile with L = 30 m, D = 5.0 m and t
p
= 0.09 m.
Fig. 15. Effect of load eccentricity h/L on the accumulated rate after 100 cycles for a monopile with D = 7.5 m, t
p
= 0.09 m and H = 15 MN.
M. Achmus et al. / Computers and Geotechnics 36 (2009) 725735 733
Acknowledgments
The results presented in this paper were obtained as part of the
FORWIND research group project funded by the Government of the
federal state of Lower Saxony, Germany. The numerical simula-
tions were carried out on a high performance computer provided
by the North German Alliance for the Advancement of High-Perfor-
mance Computing (HLRN), whose support is gratefully
acknowledged.
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