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The Geotechnics Sub-Committee of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Coasts, Oceans, Ports, and Rivers Institute (COPRI) Marine Renewable Energy (MRE) Committee is preparing a guide document for marine renewable energy foundations. That guide would use standard design codes for fixed foundations and mooring anchors in API RP 2GEO and DNV.The static method of computing axial pile capacity described in API RP 2GEO (2011) is generally used to compute ultimate compressive and tensile capacities of pipe piles driven to a given penetration. Lateral soil resistance -pile deflection (p-y) data for clays and sands are usually developed using procedures proposed by Matlock (1970) andMurchison (1983), respectively, and outlined in API RP 2GEO (2011). Marine energy foundations are unique in several ways. Axial pile capacity computations are usually based on a reasonable lower bound, in contrast to the soil resistance to driving, which is based on a reasonable upper bound. For structures supporting wind turbines, however, underestimating (or overestimating) the soil stiffness could require a change in turbine operation and a loss of power production. Although the classical API method is recognized as an appropriately conservative design method for offshore pile foundations, a prediction method is more well suited for structures supporting wind turbines, such as the CPT-based methods for predicting pile capacity in granular soils presented in API RP 2GEO (2011). If a prediction method is used to compute the soil resistance to driving, the evaluation of pile drivability may be overly conservative. Ageing in both clay and sand should also be taken into account. Wind turbines are often supported on large diameter monopiles. The applicability of the p-y data for such large diameter piles needs to be verified. Finally, marine renewable energy generated by in-stream hydrokinetics, ocean thermal energy conversion, and wave energy converters may be floating devices usually anchored to the seafloor. There are uncertainties in the design and installation of these anchors, which become critical for large sustained tensile loads that may degrade due to creep and cyclic loading.

Offshore wind structures are subjected to cyclic loadings from wind, wave and current which must be accounted for when designing foundations. The effects of cyclic loadings can govern the dimension of the foundations. However, less standard and calculation procedure for designing foundations under cyclic loadings is generally accepted in practical design. A parametric study at the generic clay profiles were carried out by using the conventional beam column approach and the finite element analysis. In addition, a monopile foundation at the layered soil profiles in Korean West Sea were designed taking into cyclic loading effect account. Both design results show that the bending moments and shear forces along the pile by using beam column approach are larger than the results from the FE analysis. The FE analysis gives less pile displacement and rotation than the beam column approach. The reason for these differences can be partially explained by the soil reactions in the upper soil profiles. For the clay layers the lateral soil resistance is generally higher in the FE analyses compared to the cyclic p-y curves. However the lateral resistance in the silt sand layers is greater by using the standard cyclic p-y curves with a drained friction angle than using the constitutive models applying cyclic properties. Based on the results, a practical approach of monopile design for the specific offshore location can be recommended by calibrating and simplifying cyclic p-y curves from the results of FE analyses taking into account the cyclic stress-stain response of the soil.

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