Anti-liquefaction characteristics of composite bucket foundations for offshore wind turbines Available to Purchase

Occurrence of liquefaction in saturated sandy deposits under structure foundation can cause a wide range of structural damages from minor settlement to general failure because of bearing capacity loss. By comparing traditional foundations for offshore wind turbines, the soil inside and underneath the composite bucket foundation is subjected to the overburden pressure from the foundation self-weight and constrained by a half-closed bucket skirt. The objective of this paper is to clarify the effects of the soil-foundation interaction on the soil liquefaction resistance around the skirt and under the foundation. The dynamic response of the composite bucket foundation during earthquake, including coupled soil mode of porous media, is calculated using the ADINA finite-element program. A typical configuration of composite bucket foundation is used for the analysis, and two earthquake waves (peak ground accelerations of 0.035 g and 0.22 g) are applied as the base acceleration. The results show that the composite bucket foundation exhibited good resistance to seismic action by improving the anti-liquefaction capacity of the soil inside and under the foundation because of the overburden pressure of the self-weight and the constraint effect of the skirt.