| Summary: | Suction caissons have recently been considered as an alternative to monopile foundations for offshore wind turbines and met masts. By their nature, such structures have stringent limit states imposed on their design dictating the first modal frequency and the allowable structural rotations. The aim of this thesis is to assess how cyclic loading will affect the long-term serviceability behaviour of such an offshore structure. The behaviour of such a representative caisson system was assessed through the use of a series of scale model tests conducted in dry sand, replicating a fully drained prototype condition. These tests were designed to record the foundation stiffness, its evolution under cyclic loading, how the system accumulates rotation with loading cycles and the dynamic properties of a caisson system. This was conducted at a number of scales under single-g and multi-g conditions. Considering all of the experimentally obtained data it was possible to analyse and provide a prediction as to the long-term behaviour of such an offshore structure. It was discovered that the foundation stiffness was highly dependent on the strain level and under the application of cyclic loading the stiffness would tend to increase in a logarithmic manner. In addition it was found that when subjected to a cyclic load a caisson system will accumulate rotation in accordance with a power relationship. Finally the dynamic properties were found to closely match pre-existing formulations describing a simple dynamic system. Considering these results it was possible to produce an analytical model to describe the evolution of serviceability of a caisson founded offshore structure. Latterly this model was applied to a series of representative cyclic loading test to examine the validity of the complete model.
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