Laterally Loaded Monopile for Large Scale Offshore Wind Turbines

Abstract

Offshore wind energy provides tremendous potential for clean energy growth around the world. Offshore wind turbines often have a monopile base installed. Action of large-sized monopiles against horizontal load is studied using a finite element model in three dimensions by Plaxis software in order to determine lateral load capacity of the monopile. The correlation between horizontal ultimate load and lateral displacement has been studied and the lateral monopile capacity can be enhanced by adding jointed plates or winged plates as discussed here. Monopile failure shape has been studied in all the cases in order to identify how monopile act at failure.