Soil Structure Interaction Analysis for Energy Foundations

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Increasing energy demands, dwindling fossil fuel reserves and a heightened concern for the detrimental effects of carbon emissions leading to climate change have made it necessary to search for alternate, renewable and clean energy sources. Wind and geothermal energies are clean and renewable energies that can be extracted economically by setting up offshore wind farms and by constructing structural foundations which serve the dual purpose of extracting geothermal energy from the ground and providing mechanical support to buildings and structures. Recent installations of offshore wind turbines (OWTs) in Europe and other parts of the world have led to a total power generation capacity of over 11,027 MW. OWTs are mostly founded on monopile foundations and can provide a continuous and steady supply of wind energy along the long coast lines of Canada. Monopile design requires improvement, particularly against cyclic loads, to improve the cost-effectiveness and reliability of the wind farms. It is estimated that the use of geothermal energy in residential and commercial buildings may lead to 45-80% reduction in CO2 emissions and to 18-56% cost savings. The extraction of geothermal energy through energy pile foundations is very viable in Canada, because the temperature at a few feet below the earth's surface remains stable within a narrow range of 20°-35°C. The main concern in using energy piles is the lack of a precise design method because of which the reliability of energy piles is not well established in the Canadian piling industry. The proposed research will address the current gaps in the design of monopile foundations and geothermal pile foundations by (1) developing constitutive models for marine deposits supporting offshore wind-turbine monopiles, (2) developing analytical and numerical frameworks to investigate the long-term performance of monopiles under cyclic loads, (3) extending the analysis to a probabilistic framework considering the random spatial heterogeneity of soil properties, (4) performing earthquake analysis of the wind-turbine monopiles, (5) investigating the thermo-mechanical behavior of soil and soil-concrete interface using laboratory tests for geothermal energy pile applications, (6) developing thermoplastic, non-isothermal soil constitutive models for soil, (7) developing a numerical framework to analyze energy piles under mechanical and thermal loads, (8) improving design methodologies of wind-turbine monopiles and geothermal piles based on the research, and (9) performing sustainability assessment of wind-turbine monopiles and geothermal energy piles. The proposed research program will establish a pioneering, rational framework for the analysis and design of monopiles and energy piles. As the profession will recognize the value of the research, the framework will be adopted in practice, which will contribute to the sustainable development of civil infrastructure in Canada with clean energy technologies.