Best Paper in Geotechnical Engineering at 2012 Bridge & Concrete Irish Research

Gerry Murphy, a Research Masters student in Civil Engineering at UCD, won the best prize for a paper in Geotechnical Engineering at the Bridge and Concrete Research in Ireland conference. His research is on the  investigation of novel  foundation systems for offshore wind turbines. The title of the study is “An Experimental Investigation of Winged Monopile Foundations for Offshore Wind Turbines”. The work investigates whether the lateral bearing capacity of a monopile foundation can be improved by the addition of “wings” to the pile shaft near the ground surface. These wings will compensate for the low soil strengths near ground surface leading to an increase in the foundation’s resistance to lateral wind and wave loading. The project consists of the analysis of in-situ medium scale instrumented model winged monopile tests in varying soil conditions, with a specific focus on the potential increase of lateral bearing capacity and stiffness due to the addition of the wings of varying geometry.