Offshore Geotechnics research line

Knowledge Institute

KULeuven

Address

KU Leuven Hydraulics and Geotechnics Section (Brugge) & KU Leuven Structural Mechanics Section (Leuven)

Website

https://bwk.kuleuven.be/projects/offshoregeotechnics/offshore-geotechnics

N° of FTE working on wind topics

Between 5-10

Our offshore wind expertise (general)

Cyclic soil–foundation interaction: Modelling long-term foundation response under cyclic loading, with particular emphasis on ratcheting, stiffness evolution/degradation, and accumulation of permanent strains and displacements, including constitutive soil model developments.

Advanced constitutive modelling for cyclic loading: Developing and implementing cyclic plasticity models for sands (GCP model), to capture complex loading paths and support prediction of offshore foundation performance.

Monopile foundation installation and soil ageing: Investigating how impact and vibratory installation affect the surrounding soil and subsequent monopile foundation response, including ageing effects and their implications for operational performance and eventual extraction.

Offshore foundation behaviour and design: Investigating the response of monopiles, suction caissons, and innovative foundation concepts under monotonic and cyclic loading, linking soil behaviour to foundation-scale performance.

Large-scale field, centrifuge and laboratory testing: Designing and analysing large-scale field, centrifuge and 1g laboratory tests, to characterise soil–foundation response and validate constitutive models and engineering design approaches.

Decommissioning and monopile foundation extraction: Assessing the extractability of monopiles, including extraction resistance, installation- and ageing-induced changes in soil state, and strategies for efficient end-of-life removal.

Our group was/is involved in these key offshore wind projects:

1) SAGE-SAND – “Soil ageing around offshore wind turbine foundations – from operational response to decommissioning”.

Funded by Energietransitiefonds / Fonds de transition énergétique – AD Energie / DG Energie (ETF 2022), FOD Economie Belgium (Brussels, BE). Academic consortium: KU Leuven – UCLouvain – Uliège.

2) EXCALIBUR – "Experimental and Computational Analysis of monopile extraction: Leveraging Innovation and Better Understanding for Renewable offshore wind energy"

Funded by Energietransitiefonds / Fonds de transition énergétique – AD Energie / DG Energie (ETF 2025), FOD Economie Belgium (Brussels, BE).

Project partners: KU Leuven, UCLouvain, ULiège, UGent, and Jan De Nul.

3) Cyclic soil–structure interaction framework for the foundations of offshore renewable energy structures (GPUM/21/023, 2 funded joint doctoral projects).

Collaboration: KU Leuven – University of Melbourne.

Our relevant equipment | tools | infrastructure

for offshore wind:

Advanced cyclic triaxial apparatus (DYNTTS system by GDS) for advanced soil characterization and testing.
Large-scale field test site in Zeebrugge for monopile installation, extraction and lateral loading, considering the effect of soil ageing (SAGE-SAND / EXCALIBUR projects' test site).
Numerical and constitutive modelling: In-house soil constitutive model development (GCP), finite-element modelling (in-house: Stabil, open source: OpenSees, commercial packages: Abaqus, PLAXIS), and custom Python-based soil–structure interaction tools for design.