Large deformation numerical analysis of rock permeability influence on anchor performance for offshore renewable applications

TY - GEN

T1 - Large deformation numerical analysis of rock permeability influence on anchor performance for offshore renewable applications

AU - Genco, Alessio

AU - Ciantia, Matteo O.

AU - Brown, Michael

AU - Previtali, Marco

AU - Ivanovic, A.

AU - Cresswell, Nick

N1 - Funding Information: This research is part of an industry funded studentship (ETP EIDP #182). The technical and financial support of the industrial partner SWIFT ANCHORS and the financial support of the Engineering Technology Partnership (ETP) are gratefully acknowledged. Copyright: © Authors: All rights reserved, 2023.

PY - 2023/6/26

Y1 - 2023/6/26

N2 - The rapid expansion of Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) is leading to the development of novel rock anchoring systems which require a reliable and efficient design method to operate under strong current and tidal action. Hydromechanical (HM) coupled processes, ultimately function of the loading rate and permeability of the rock are crucial for geotechnical design. As the experimental investigation of rock-structure HM interaction is challenging, numerical modelling is often the only alternative to advance the reliability of current empirical design methods. The Geotechnical Particle Finite Element Method (GPFEM) is herein proposed to numerically assess the Rock Anchor (RA) response under axial loading in variable drainage conditions. A Structured Modified Cam Clay (S-MCC) constitutive model is adopted to represent the mechanical behaviour of a sandstone. By using a large strain non-local formulation, mesh dependency issues related to inevitable localisation processes are taken care of. Thanks to a fully HM coupled formulation the effect rock permeability on the evolution of excess pore water pressures and the mechanical response of a RA during axial pull-out is examined. The result show that these coupled HM effects play a substantial role on pull-out capacity of RA.

AB - The rapid expansion of Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) is leading to the development of novel rock anchoring systems which require a reliable and efficient design method to operate under strong current and tidal action. Hydromechanical (HM) coupled processes, ultimately function of the loading rate and permeability of the rock are crucial for geotechnical design. As the experimental investigation of rock-structure HM interaction is challenging, numerical modelling is often the only alternative to advance the reliability of current empirical design methods. The Geotechnical Particle Finite Element Method (GPFEM) is herein proposed to numerically assess the Rock Anchor (RA) response under axial loading in variable drainage conditions. A Structured Modified Cam Clay (S-MCC) constitutive model is adopted to represent the mechanical behaviour of a sandstone. By using a large strain non-local formulation, mesh dependency issues related to inevitable localisation processes are taken care of. Thanks to a fully HM coupled formulation the effect rock permeability on the evolution of excess pore water pressures and the mechanical response of a RA during axial pull-out is examined. The result show that these coupled HM effects play a substantial role on pull-out capacity of RA.

KW - G-PFEM

KW - Offshore Geotechnical Engineering

KW - Rock Anchors

KW - Offshore Renewable Energy

U2 - 10.53243/NUMGE2023-112

DO - 10.53243/NUMGE2023-112

M3 - Conference contribution

BT - Proceedings of the 10th European Conference on Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering

A2 - Zdravkovic, Lidija

A2 - Kontoe, Stavroula

A2 - Tsiampousi, Aikaterini

A2 - Taborda, David

PB - International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering

CY - London

T2 - 10th European Conference on Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering

Y2 - 26 June 2023 through 28 June 2023

ER -