Cyclic triaxial tests to aid offshore pile analysis and design

Renewable offshore energy structures experience unusually high levels of cyclic loading under storm and operating conditions. Laboratory and full-scale tests provide one route to develop rational foundation design approaches for such structures. Analytical approaches may also be developed from soil element testing and modelling. This paper outlines preliminary results from such a study. Computer-controlled stress path triaxial equipment, employing high-resolution local strain instrumentation, is adopted for experiments on Dunkerque and Fontainebleau sands designed to support parallel full-scale field and laboratory-model testing programmes involving axial pile loading. The triaxial experiments comprise suites of constant-volume uniform cyclic tests on K-0 over-consolidated specimens employing different amplitudes, performed in conjunction with static and multi-stage experiments that examine the effects of non-uniform cyclic loading. Preliminary results reveal the relationships between cyclic deviator stress, mean effective stress changes and number of cycles, as well as patterns of permanent and cyclic strain development.