Experimental Study of the Influence of the Pore Water Pressure Evolution and the Shear Band Formation on the Extraction Resistance of Submerged Anchor Plates

Abstract

Floating offshore structures used to generate wind energy are founded on submerged foundations such as anchor plates. Their extraction resistance is of major importance during and at the end of the lifetime cycle of these offshore structures. During their lifetime cycle, the foundation is suspended to complex loading conditions due to waves, tidal currents and wind loads. To guarantee a stable structure, the extraction resistance of the anchor plates has to be known. At the end of the lifetime cycle of the offshore structures, the extraction resistance is mainly influencing the removal of the anchor plates. This resistance is a lot higher than the sum of its self-weight and hydrostatic and earth pressure acting on the structure. With initiation of a motion of the anchor plate, the volume underneath this structure is increased leading to negative pore water pressure until inflowing pore water is filling the newly created volume. In order to investigate this effect, an extensive experimental study at model scale with a displacement-driven extraction is performed. Pore pressure measurements are carried out at various locations in the soil body and underneath the plate. The soil movement is tracked with a high-speed camera to investigate the shear band formation with the particle image velocimetry method (PIV). The experiments will be conducted considering different packing densities of the soil body and at different extraction velocities to investigate their effect on the extraction resistance of anchor plates.