Pile design using wave equation analysis program application in offshore wind farm

Abstract

Pile driving has been of interest to geotechnical engineers for a very long time. Originally, empirical pile driving formulae were used to interpret pile displacements caused by a hammer blow. Smith (1960) proposed a numerical solution for wave propagation in an elastic pile using a finite difference scheme, with lumped mass representation and simple rheological laws for pile-soil interaction. Since then, many significant parameters affecting pile driving have been included in the wave equation analysis. The offshore industry finds much application of pile driving analysis, especially after recent developments in instrumentation and electronic computational tools. Positioning of wind farms offshore and designing a foundation for a floating platform is a challenge to geotechnical engineers. One of the methods to anchor the floating platform is to tether it down to the seabed with help of driven piles. This thesis considers a typical offshore site for designing a driven pile for floating wind farm. The Author has carried out a set of numerical simulations to analyze pile driving at this site using a commercial program (GRLWEAP), and illustrates how this program can be used in pile design.