Experimental and numerical investigation of the effect of vertical loading on the lateral behaviour of monopiles in sand

The influence of combined loading on the response monopiles used to support offshore wind turbines (OWTs) is investigated in this paper. In current practice, resistance vertical and lateral considered separately. As OWT size has increased, slenderness ratio (pile length, L, normalised by diameter, D) decreased foundations are tending towards intermediate footings with geometries between those piles shallow foundations. Whilst load interaction effects not significant for slender piles, they critical footings. Previous research pile resulted conflicting findings, potentially arising from variations boundary conditions slenderness. study, monotonic tests were conducted a geotechnical centrifuge vertically loaded dense sand. Results indicate that L/D = 5, increasing improved initial stiffness capacity. A similar trend was observed 3, when below ≈45% pile’s ultimate For higher loads considered, results tended behaviour Numerical analyses show changes mean effective stress responsible behaviour.