ABSTRACT
Most offshore wind parks designated to be installed within the next years in the North and Baltic Sea, are located in areas with dense sand deposits. In order to match these conditions in our model tests the soil also needed to be in a highly dense state. However, at the chosen scale the applied forces are extremely low. As a result of the low force level the expected deformations in the model tests are extremely small (in the range of several μm). Therefore high resolution measuring equipment is needed in order to monitor the
1 CONCEPT OF PARTIAL SELF-HEALING
Currently there are many offshore wind parks in the Baltic and North Sea in the planning and approval phase. A commonly used foundation for the planned 3-5 MW wind engines are monopiles with a diameter ranging from 4 to 6 m. For choosing dimensions of the foundation large static horizontal force Hmax and moments Mmax are used that represent the impact of a worst case scenario for a strong storm event. For the prediction of the permanent displacement cased by cyclic loads during the life time of the structure there is currently no established method available.
