Study on cyclic loading characteristics of silty soils offshore eastern Guangdong
Marine environmental factors such as wind,wave and current as well as the vibration caused by the operation of the offshore wind turbine lead to sustained cyclic loading on offshore wind turbine foundations.It is therefore very important to understand the mechanical properties of the seabed soils under cyclic loading conditions for the design of foundations.The geological conditions in the Nanhai Sea are complex and silty soils are widely distributed.At present,there is a lack of systematic research on the cyclic loading properties of the shallow silty soils in the Nanhai Sea,which presents a major challenge for the design of offshore wind turbine foundations in the area.In this paper,based on an offshore wind farm project in eastern Guangdong,a systematic experimental study was carried out on several representative silty soil layers.Based on the results of systematic monotonic and cyclic loading direct simple shear(DSS)tests,normalized monotonic shear strength,cyclic contour diagrams of strain and pore pressure were obtained.The set of cyclic loading contour diagrams not only effectively supported the design of wind turbine foundations of the project,but also provides an important reference for other projects in the region.