PLAXIS MoDeTo implements the PISA design method for the design of monopile foundations for offshore wind turbines, including large diameter monopiles.

The PISA joint-industry project (Phase 1: 2013-2016; Phase 2: 2017-2018) was a research study on the development of new design procedures for monopile foundations for offshore wind turbine applications. The project consisted of field testing, numerical modelling and design model development. The research was conducted by an Academic Work Group drawn from the University of Oxford, Imperial College London and University College Dublin and was conducted in collaboration with a range of project partners. One outcome of this study is a one dimensional (1D) design model, based on the use of Timoshenko beam theory, that overcomes certain limitations of existing methods.

The broad scope of the PISA joint industry project is summarised in recent publications:

PISA Phase 1: General description and methodology

• Byrne, B.W. et al. (2015). New design methods for large diameter piles under lateral loading for offshore wind applications. In: 3rd International Symposium on Frontiers in Offshore Geotechnics, Oslo, Norway.
• Zdravković, L. et al. (2015). Numerical modelling of large diameter piles under lateral loading for offshore wind applications. In: 3rd International Symposium on Frontiers in Offshore Geotechnics, Oslo, Norway.
• Byrne, B.W. et al. (2017). PISA: New Design Methods for Offshore Wind Turbine Monopiles. In: 8th International Conference for Offshore Site Investigation and Geotechnics (OSIG 2017), London, United Kingdom.
• Burd, H.J. et al. (2017). Design aspects for monopile foundations. In: TC 209 workshop on foundation design for offshore wind structures, 19th ICSMGE, Seoul, South Korea.
• Byrne, B.W. et al. (2019). PISA: Recent Developments in Offshore Wind Turbine Monopile Design. 1st Vietnam Symposium on Advances in Offshore Engineering (VSOE 2018), Hanoi, Vietnam.
• Zdravković, L. et al. (2019). Ground characterisation for PISA pile testing and analysis. Géotechnique (ahead of print).
• Zdravković, L. et al. (2019). Finite element modelling of laterally loaded piles in a stiff glacial clay till at Cowden. Géotechnique (ahead of print).
• Taborda, D.M.G. et al. (2019). Finite element modelling of laterally loaded piles in a dense marine sand at Dunkirk. Géotechnique (ahead of print).
• Byrne, B.W. et al. (2019). PISA Design Model for Monopiles for Offshore Wind Turbines: Application to a Stiff Glacial Clay Till. Géotechnique (ahead of print).
• Burd, H.J. et al. (2019). PISA Design Model for Monopiles for Offshore Wind Turbines: Application to a Dense Marine Sand. Géotechnique (ahead of print).

PISA Phase 2: Layered soils extension

• He, Y. et al. (2017). Application of a Numerical-based Design Method for Laterally Loaded Monopiles in Layered Soils. In: 8th International Conference for Offshore Site Investigation and Geotechnics (OSIG 2017), London, United Kingdom.
• Byrne, B.W. et al. (2019). PISA Design Methods for Offshore Wind Turbine Monopiles. In: 50th Offshore Technology Conference (OTC 2019), Houston, Texas.

Field tests

• Byrne, B.W. et al. (2015). Field testing of large diameter piles under lateral loading for offshore wind applications. In: 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Edinburgh, UK.
• Beuckelaers, W.J.A.P. et al. (2017). Data analysis for the PISA project. In: 8th International Conference for Offshore Site Investigation and Geotechnics, London, United Kingdom.
• Burd, H.J. et al. (2019). New data analysis methods for instrumented medium-scale monopile field tests. Géotechnique (ahead of print).
• Byrne, B.W. et al. (2019). Monotonic laterally loaded pile testing in a stiff glacial clay till at Cowden. Géotechnique (ahead of print).
• McAdam, R.A. et al. (2019). Monotonic laterally loaded pile testing in a dense marine sand at Dunkirk. Géotechnique (ahead of print).

Validations and applications: Homogeneous soils

• Minga, E., Burd, H.J. (2019). Validation of PLAXIS MoDeTo based on the Cowden till PISA field tests. Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom.
• Minga, E., Burd, H.J. (2019). Validation of the PLAXIS MoDeTo 1D model for dense sand. Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom.
• Panagoulias, S. et al. (2018). An Innovative Design Methodology for Offshore Wind Monopile Foundations. In: 26th European Young Geotechnical Engineers Conference, Graz, Austria.
• Panagoulias, S. et al. (2018). Application of the PISA framework to the design of offshore wind turbine monopile foundations. In: WindEurope 2018, Hamburg, Germany.
• Panagoulias, S. et al. (2019). Design of Offshore Monopile Foundations Using the PISA Methodology. In: Offshore Wind International Partnering Forum (IPF 19), New York City, New York.
• Kaltekis, K. et al. (2019). Comparative concept design study of laterally loaded monopiles. In: WindEurope 2019, Bilbao, Spain.
• Brinkgreve, R.B.J. et al. (2020). Validation and application of a new software tool implementing the PISA Design Methodology. J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2020, 8, 457.
• Panagoulias, S. et al. (2020). Concept Design Study of Laterally Loaded Monopiles in Sand. In: International Symposium on Frontiers in Offshore Geotechnics (ISFOG21), Austin, TX.

Validations and applications: Layered soils

• Panagoulias, S. et al. (2019). Design of laterally-loaded monopiles in layered soils. In: 2nd International Conference on Natural Hazards & Infrastructure (ICONHIC 2019), Chania, Greece.
• Burd et al. (2020). Application of the PISA Design Model to Monopiles Embedded in Layered Soils. Géotechnique (ahead of print).