Multiscale analysis of soil ageing and installation method for offshore wind turbine foundations

Abstract:

The foundations of Offshore Wind Turbines (OWT) represent a large share of their installation costs and environmental impact. In order to improve both aspects, The SAGE SAND project, involving multiple academic and industry partners, investigates the evolution in time of soils’ mechanical properties, called soil ageing, and the alternative use of vibratory driving for installation and decommissioning of offshore (mono)piles. In this presentation, I will share recent results of full-scale tests, advanced laboratory tests and numerical modeling at multiple spatial scales that has been obtained during the project.

Short bio:

Hadrien Rattez is Assistant Professor at the Civil and Environmental Engineering Section of the Institute of Mechanics, Materials and Civil Engineering of UCLouvain since September 2020. His research focuses on the mechanical behavior of geomaterials, developing constitutive laws, experimental methods and advanced numerical models for the understanding and modeling of energy related projects (like geothermal or wind turbines), and natural hazards (like landslides or earthquakes).

Prior to his current position, he was a Postdoctoral associate at Duke University (2018-2020) and he obtained his PhD degree in Geotechnics from Ecole des Ponts ParisTech in 2017 under the supervision of Jean Sulem and Ioannis Stefanou.