Experimental Setup For Cyclic Lateral Loading of Monopiles In Sand

The majority of all offshore wind turbines are installed on monopiles, i.e. large diameter stiff piles. During the environmental loading of the wind turbine, the monopile is subjected to millions of load cycles which might cause a permanent rocking rotation (tilt) of the wind turbine. In this paper, the influence of the number of load cycles on the permanent rocking rotation of the monopile is investigated by means of a new 1g mechanical testing rig capable of providing more than 40,000 load cycles. The experimental setup is described and compared with previous small-scale tests and the result from one cyclic load test is