PLAXIS Monopile Designer is a finite element software for monopile foundations. It transfers the results of the PISA Joint Industry Research Project to daily engineering practice. PLAXIS Monopile Designer reduces the amount of steel each monopile requires and therefore reduces overall costs for any wind farm. It can be used as a stand-alone tool or in connection with PLAXIS 3D.
Significantly optimize the designs for your monopile foundation project. This will reduce overall steel, fabrication, transportation, and installation costs. You could reduce the embedded length of piles by up to 35%.
PLAXIS Monopile Designer offers an enhanced design method that dramatically reduces the amount of steel needed for monopile foundations, lowering the overall costs of wind farms. It allows the transfer of results of the PISA Joint Industry Research Project into daily engineering practices.
For decades, the PLAXIS engineering process has consistently delivered stable, robust, and well-defined geotechnical finite element software. PLAXIS Monopile Designer follows this proven process and has been validated via large-scale testing of monopile foundations at the two PISA test sites, the Dunkirk sand site and the Cowden clay site.
From the screenshot, it is clear that the mesh is very coarse, whereas, for such situations in which high stresses are expected at the vicinity of the footing, the mesh needs to be fine. Please refine the mesh in the vicinity of the foundation in order to be more accurate in output results of stresses and strains. Also it seems a bit unrealistic the way the plate represents the footing. The way that it is currently modelled, It looks like the foundation (concrete) and the soil are the same material which, in reality, is not the case. because Also, the foundation will have some thickness to it and a plate, usually, is used to model very thin structures like steel sheet pile walls for example.
During the analysis of the model, at the step of applying load on the foundation, the soil around the foundation uplifts and foundation deformation is positive while it seems the problem does not relate to the load value. I have also tried to add a negative interface between the bottom of the foundation and the soil which did not impact the result.
You can follow this link where you can find a movie which shows how to model the installation of a wind turbine foundation and how to assign different loading conditions using the the new rigid body functionality in PLAXIS 3D AE release. The rigid body object allows users to define different loading conditions, like rotations, forces or displacements from a single user defined reference point. It is also particularly useful for off-shore applications.
Due to the 3D nature of the pile geometry and the possible lateral component of the design load, most pile foundation analyses should be set up in PLAXIS 3D. Ideally, the piles themselves will be represented by volume elements. This will guarantee the most accurate representation of the physical problem, especially regarding soil-structure interaction.
Foundation plays a vital role in weight transfer from the superstructure to substructure. However, foundation characteristics such as pile group, piled raft, and footing remain unfolded due to their highly non-linear behaviour in different soil types. Bibliography analysis using VOSvierwer algorithm supported the significance of the research. Hence, this study investigates the load-bearing capacity of different types of foundations, including footings, pile groups, and piled rafts, by analyzing experimental data using finite element tools such as PLAXIS 2D and GEO5. The analysis involves examining the impact of various factors such as the influence of surcharge and the effect of different soil types on the load-bearing capabilities of the different types of foundation. For footing, parametric investigations using PLAXIS 2D are conducted to explore deformational changes. Pile groups are analyzed using GEO5 to assess their factor of safety (FOS.) and settling under various criteria, such as pile length and soil type. The study also provides insight into selecting the right type of foundation for civil engineering practice. Findings showed that different soil types have varying deformational behaviours under high loads with sandy soil having less horizontal deformation than clayey soil. Also, it was observed that increasing the pile thickness by 50% resulted in a reduction of 13.88% in settlement and an improvement of 16.66% in the FOS. In conclusion, this study highlights the importance of professionalism, exceptional talent, and outstanding decision-making when assessing the load-bearing capabilities of various foundation types for building structures.
Foundation is a substructure Component that serves as a weight transfer mechanism for the superstructure's supporting columns and walls. Footing being the foundation's backbone, also delivers important benefits such as avoiding excessive or unequal settlement, rotation, and providing enough resistance to sliding and overturning. Large-scale structures can now be built because of new developments in civil engineering. These structures can apply substantial loads to the soil. Pile groups are employed to enhance the depth of footings and transfer loads to soil layers with higher bearing capacity (such as thick gravel, gravelly sand, hard clay, or rock) in cases where the soil's rigidity and bearing capacity are inadequate1. When dealing with substantial loads imposed by large-scale structures, piled raft foundations (PRFs) offer a viable solution when shallow footings are insufficient2,3. PRFs improve the ultimate load-bearing capacity of shallow footings, reduce settlements, and minimize bending moments within the raft. This system combines the load-bearing capacities of the soil, raft, and piles into a composite structure. The behaviour of PRF in a multilayered soil profile is significantly influenced by the thickness of the flexible raft4,5. To ensure the safe design of such footings, it is crucial to comprehend the intricate soil-structure interaction behaviours that influence the behaviour of PRFs1,2. The optimal pile arrangement can be chosen to minimize differential settlement by taking into account loading intensity and serviceability limit factors6.To ensure the long-term functionality of organic soils in construction projects, various soil modification techniques are employed, including methods like cutting and replacing, displacement, or pre-compression7. Pile foundations are also employed to address issues about the insufficient strength and excessive settling of organic soil8. When shallow footings cannot accommodate these loads, PRFs are typically used as a substitute1. In the past few years, combined piled raft foundation technique has gained popularity as an enhanced foundation option, particularly for high-rise structures9,10,11,12,13. A raft, a sequence of piles, and subsoil comprise a hybrid piled raft foundation14. Piled raft foundations have gained significant popularity in recent years due to their ability to combine the bearing capacities of piles and rafts. Extensive research has been undertaken to ensure the reliability and cost-effectiveness of designing such foundations through rigorous analytical, numerical, and experimental studies8,15. Various foundations are considered depending on the type of construction. Shallow foundations are chosen over deep foundations if the soil carrying capacity is adequate for the weight of the structure16,17. When the soil carrying capacity is insufficient to support the load of the structure, a deep foundation or a mix of the two is used. Footing is a substructure component that serves as a weight transfer mechanism for the superstructure's supporting columns and walls. Since footing is the foundation's backbone, it also delivers important benefits such as avoiding excessive or unequal settlement, and rotation and providing enough resistance to sliding and overturning. Pile foundations are one sort of deep foundation that has the benefit of resisting uplift pressures in the same way as they take compression forces in the other direction via skin friction18,19. When the soil's carrying capacity is limited and large settlements are expected, piles are a preferable solution. A pile cap is built during foundation pile design to allow for the connection of pile heads and convenient load transmission. A pile cap is intended for structural section capacity, with the cap playing a significant role if it comes into direct contact with the foundation soil. A pile group is formed when many pile ends are joined together by a common structural member known as a pile cap.
High-rise structures, bridges, power plants, and oil tankers might all be built on top of piled rafts.20. PRF is a three-part load-bearing structure composed of piles, rafts, and subsoil which is more strong and safe. The raft and pile share most of the superstructure weight, decreasing settling. The raft has an appropriate rolling limit and reduces differential settling, although it settles excessively. As a result, the pile-side raft is used as a piled raft to set a good bearing limit and reduce settling within significant, fair, and safe cut-off points. Davis and Poulos were the first to propose a stacked-raft foundation. For piled raft foundations, somewhat stiff or medium clay soil strata, and thick sand soil strata are excellent21. Soft clays at the surface, as well as soft compressible layers at relatively short depths, are unsuitable for stacked raft foundations. Several previous theoretical and experimental studies have been carried out to better understand the performance of mixed piled raft foundations by varying variables such as soil properties, raft stiffness, pile number, pile spacing, and applied load level22,23,24,25.
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