Macro- and micro-mechanics of granular soil in asymmetric cyclic loadings encountered by offshore wind turbine foundations

Abstract

Offshore wind turbine foundations are subject to 107–108 cycles of loadings in their designed service life. Recent research shows that under cyclic loading, most soils change their properties. Discrete Element Modelling of cyclic simple shear tests was performed using PFC2D to analyse the micromechanics underlying the cyclic behaviours of soils. The DEM simulation were first compared with previous experimental results. Then asymmetric one-way and two-way cyclic loading pattern attained from real offshore wind farms were considered in the detailed parametric study. The simulation results show that the shear modulus increases rapidly in the initial loading cycles and then the rate of increase diminishes; the rate of increase depends on the strain amplitude, initial relative density and vertical stress. It shows that the change of soil behaviour is strongly related to the variation of coordination number, rotation of principal stress direction and evolution of degree of fabric anisotropy. Loading asymmetry only affects soil behaviours in the first few hundred of cycles. In the long term, the magnitude of (γmax − γmin) rather than loading asymmetry dominates the soil responses. Cyclic loading history may change the stress–strain behaviour of a soil to an extent dependent on its initial relative density.