International Workshop on Cyclic Behaviour of Sand for Application in Offshore Energy

In the emerging offshore wind energy industry, one of the key focus is to achieve economic wind farm design for profitability. The traditional offshore energy sections also aims at making the offshore design smaller, smarter and greener. NGI has more than 50 years active involvement in offshore foundation designs for offshore industries. Many of these foundations have been installed in sandy materials. However, the understanding of cyclic behaviour of sandy materials is very limited and there have to be conservative assumptions for design. There are a lot of rooms for design improvements based on the current methods, and it is of high interests of the relevant industries. NGI see several opportunities and challenges where sampling and laboratory testing are important factors for foundation design optimisation. It is found that partial drainage may occur in sandy materials during cyclic loadings and this is not clearly stated in the current design methods or standards. To quantify the effect of such condition, NGI has been conducting a series of research investigations into relevant fields, including in-situ and geophysical measurement of permeability, advanced laboratory test for drainage and loading history, numerical modelling and industry related applications. The focus of organising this this workshop will be on modelling of cyclic behaviour of sand and how to make use of this in optimizing design solutions for offshore industry. A number of internationally acknowledged experts from academia and industry are invited to share and discuss about the relevant field with focus on dense sand behaviour, effect of permeability and cyclic loading of storms and lifetime.