Dissertação
Foundation Technologies for Offshore Shallow Water Renewable Energy Projects EVALUATED
Bucket foundations have been widely used in oil and gas offshore structures. However, this type of foundations is also suitable for offshore wind turbines. This dissertation presents the results of a two- dimensional and three-dimensional finite element analyses of bucket foundations embedded in clay under undrained conditions, where frictional contact is considered between bucket skirt and subsoil. Two bucket configurations, solid and shell, are executed and compared with each other. Two soil cases are modelled, with uniform undrained shear strength and with increasing undrained shear strength. Aspect ratios L/D for the foundations are taken 0.5, 1 and 2. The performance of a simplified bucket foundation model under vertical and horizontal load is investigated. The conducted bearing capacities from FEA are compared with calculated analytical approaches as well as previous studies. It is shown that FEA agrees well with the analytical approaches and previous studies. Regarding the ultimate vertical capacity, shell bucket are likely to behave in the same way as solid bucket configurations.
junho 26, 2015, 9:30
Publicação
Obra sujeita a Direitos de Autor
Orientação
ORIENTADOR
Departamento de Engenharia Civil, Arquitectura e Georrecursos (DECivil)
Professor Auxiliar