Experimental Model for Shallow Foundation of Wind Turbines on Reinforced Sand with Geogrid

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Islamic Azad University Tehran Science and Research Branch

2 Faculty of Civil, Water & Environmental Engineering, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

3 Islamic Azad University , Arak, Tehran

4 Imam Khomeini International University

5 Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran

Abstract

Wind turbines foundation in addition to vertical loading are subjected to horizontal seismic and wind forces that cause eccentric loading and reduce the soil bearing capacity. For wind turbine, circular foundations are more economical than other forms because it can is not fixed to the reversal of wind and earthquake. In the last three decades, Geosynthetics application is common to increase the ultimate bearing capacity. In this study, the behavior of circular foundation under axial and eccentric loading in two conditions of unreinforced and reinforced with one layer of geogrid reinforcement have been studied experimentally. A surface circular footing 120 mm in diameter (D) was used as shallow foundation. The model tests were carried out in a square Plexi glass tank of size 0.6 × 0.6 × 0.6 m. Dry sandy soil used in tests with relative density of 60%. Parameters considered in this study include the depth of reinforcement layer from the surface (3, 5 and 7 cm) and load eccentricity. It was found that the geogrid reinforcement layer improved the load- settlement response. Bearing capacity ratio (BCR), defined as the ratio of load for a given settlement in geogrid- reinforced case to that for the same settlement in unreinforced case. It was shown that with increasing load eccentricity, when the reinforcement was placed in depth of 5 cm (u/D=0.42), the BCR improves significantly. Results showed that the distance of 5 cm for the one layer of geogrid will result in greatest improvement for the ultimate bearing capacity.

Keywords

Asas Journal
Volume 21, Issue 54
August 2019
Pages 16-31

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History

  • Receive Date: 20 November 2018
  • Revise Date: 08 September 2019
  • Accept Date: 05 January 2020

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