TY - JOUR

T1 - Reliability of design approaches for axially loaded offshore piles and its consequences with respect to the North Sea

AU - Schmoor, Kirill A.

AU - Achmus, Martin

AU - Foglia, Aligi

AU - Wefer, Maik

N1 - Funding Information: The experimental work and the subsequent data interpretation of this contribution have been carried out as part of the European Union funded project Integrated Research Project Wind ( IRPWind, European Union Seventh Framework Program under Grant No. 609795 ).

PY - 2018/12

Y1 - 2018/12

N2 - In the near future, several offshore wind farms are planned to be built in the North Sea. Therefore, jacket and tripod constructions with mainly axially loaded piles are suitable as support structures. The current design of axial bearing resistance of these piles leads to deviant results regarding the pile resistance when different design methods are adopted. Hence, a strong deviation regarding the required pile length must be addressed. The reliability of a design method can be evaluated based on a model error which describes the quality of the considered design method by comparing measured and predicted pile bearing resistances. However, only few pile load tests are reported with regard to the boundary conditions in the North Sea. This paper presents 6 large-scale axial pile load tests which were incorporated within a new model error approach for the current design methods used for the axial bearing resistance, namely API Main Text method and cone penetration test (CPT)-based design methods, such as simplified ICP-05, offshore UWA-05, Fugro-05 and NGI-05 methods. Based on these new model errors, a reliability-based study towards the safety was conducted by performing a Monte-Carlo simulation. In addition, consequences regarding the deterministic pile design in terms of quality factors were evaluated. It is shown that the current global safety factor (GSF) prescribed and the partial safety factors are only valid for the API Main Text and the offshore UWA-05 design methods; whereas for the simplified ICP-05, Fugro-05 and NGI-05 design methods, an increase in the required embedded pile length and thus in the GSF up to 2.69, 2.95 and 3.27, respectively, should be considered to satisfy the desired safety level according to DIN EN 1990 of β = 3.8. Further, quality factors for each design method on the basis of all reliability-based design results were derived. Hence, evaluation of each design method regarding the reliability of the pile capacity prediction is possible.

AB - In the near future, several offshore wind farms are planned to be built in the North Sea. Therefore, jacket and tripod constructions with mainly axially loaded piles are suitable as support structures. The current design of axial bearing resistance of these piles leads to deviant results regarding the pile resistance when different design methods are adopted. Hence, a strong deviation regarding the required pile length must be addressed. The reliability of a design method can be evaluated based on a model error which describes the quality of the considered design method by comparing measured and predicted pile bearing resistances. However, only few pile load tests are reported with regard to the boundary conditions in the North Sea. This paper presents 6 large-scale axial pile load tests which were incorporated within a new model error approach for the current design methods used for the axial bearing resistance, namely API Main Text method and cone penetration test (CPT)-based design methods, such as simplified ICP-05, offshore UWA-05, Fugro-05 and NGI-05 methods. Based on these new model errors, a reliability-based study towards the safety was conducted by performing a Monte-Carlo simulation. In addition, consequences regarding the deterministic pile design in terms of quality factors were evaluated. It is shown that the current global safety factor (GSF) prescribed and the partial safety factors are only valid for the API Main Text and the offshore UWA-05 design methods; whereas for the simplified ICP-05, Fugro-05 and NGI-05 design methods, an increase in the required embedded pile length and thus in the GSF up to 2.69, 2.95 and 3.27, respectively, should be considered to satisfy the desired safety level according to DIN EN 1990 of β = 3.8. Further, quality factors for each design method on the basis of all reliability-based design results were derived. Hence, evaluation of each design method regarding the reliability of the pile capacity prediction is possible.

KW - Global safety factors (GSFs)

KW - Model error

KW - Pile load test

KW - Quality factors

KW - System reliability

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85052113543&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.jrmge.2018.06.004

DO - 10.1016/j.jrmge.2018.06.004

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85052113543

VL - 10

SP - 1112

EP - 1121

JO - Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering

JF - Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering

SN - 1674-7755

IS - 6

ER -