Review of offshore monopile design for wind turbine towers

Abstract

There are several options in determination of foundation types for offshore wind turbine towers. The foundation types are mainly determined based on the sea depth. For relatively shallow sea depth, jacket structure or monopile is one of most preferred offshore wind turbine foundation types. Foundations of wind turbines are more critical against lateral loads or moments compared to their vertical load; therefore, reliable assessment on their lateral behavior is important. As the existing design specifications of laterally loaded pile is developed based on the database from the experiments of lateral load test results of small-diameter piles. Validation of suitability of using the existing design specifications to design monopiles against lateral load is important. Therefore, in this study, review on offshore foundation design for wind turbine towers especially focusing on lateral behavior of monopile was conducted.