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ABSTRACT
Detailed investigation of the links between operational strain levels and site investigation techniques for foundations of
wind turbines have not been previously described in the literature. This paper reports on a study of an operating wind
turbine in Southern Ontario. It describes laboratory and field methods used to characterize the strength, stiffness and
rigidity index (ratio of shear modulus to undrained shear strength) of the carbonate clay till deposit underlying the large
shallow foundation. Various correlations between in-situ tests (geophysics, CPT and SPT) and laboratory results for the
stiffness and strength properties are compared. In particular, the operational strain levels for this specific geotechnical
problem are investigated and appropriate methods of determining rigidity index and stiffness parameters are discussed.
RÉSUMÉ
Enquête sur les liens entre les niveaux de souche opérationnelles et techniques d'investigation de site pour les
fondations de l'éolienne éoliennes n'ont pas été précédemment décrits dans la littérature en détail. Cet article présente
une étude d'une éolienne en fonctionnement dans le sud de l'Ontario. Il décrit des méthodes de laboratoire et de terrain
utilisés pour caractériser l'indice de résistance, de rigidité et de rigidité (rapport de module de cisaillement à la résistance
au cisaillement non drainé) de l'argile de carbonate jusqu'au dépôt qui sous-tendent la grande fondation superficielle.
Différentes corrélations entre essais in-situ (géophysique, CPT et SPT) et on a comparé les résultats de laboratoire pour
les propriétés de rigidité et résistance. En particulier, les niveaux de contrainte opérationnelle pour ce problème
spécifique géotechniques sont étudiés et on discute des méthodes appropriées pour déterminer les paramètres index et
rigidité de rigidité.
2 1 + eo [1 + ln(OCR)]eo Λ
Ir = ( ) M ( ) ln(10)
3 Cc Λ(1 − Λ)OCRΛ
[1]
The rigidity index (Ir =G/su) was originally defined by Vesic where M is the slope of the critical state line, q t is the tip
(1972), as the ratio of the shear modulus to the shear resistance, σvo is the initial vertical stress and u2 is the
strength. This provides a description of the compressibility pore pressure measured at the depth of interest. As this is
of the soil and was used by Vesic (1972) to distinguish an exponential function, the derived values are particularly
between different modes of failure for shallow sensitive to accurate CPT measurements and therefore
foundations. It has been shown to influence a large require proper saturations for the filter and cone assembly
number of geotechnical problems, from in-situ testing, to obtain u2 readings and correction of measured qc to
cavity expansion, tunneling, shallow foundations and total qt (cone tip resistance).
Lu et al. (2004) obtained a relationship for use in in- 40 m. The upper crust has very intense fissures and the
situ penetration testing, which can also be used for Ir: deposit becomes nearly unfissured below 4.5 m. The
upper crust zone of this deposit is weathered, mottled
N −3.4+1.9∆−1.3αc brown-grey or brown-green with a stiff to very stiff
( kt ) consistency. This weathered zone generally has higher
Ir = e 1.6
moisture contents due to the infiltration of surface water
[4] into the fissures of the clay. The underlying lower crust is
prevalently brown in colour and has a very stiff
Again this relationship is dependent on parameters consistency and relatively lower natural moisture content.
measured from the CPT test, Nkt is the cone factor = At several locations, this layer has clayey silt, sandy clay
qnet/su, Δ is the normalized in-situ deviator stress = σ’vo(1 – and silt seams. A soil colour change occurs from brown to
Ko)/(2su). Ko is the earth pressure coefficient, which can grey between 3 and 4 m below the ground surface. Below
be estimated (Mayne and Kulhawy 1982) as Ko = (1 – sin the crust, the unweathered till extends beyond the
ϕ’) OCRsinϕ’. αc is the cone face roughness which varies maximum depth of sampling. This zone is characterized
from 0 to 1 for perfectly smooth and rough interfaces. by a uniform grey appearance, a stiff to very stiff
Since stiffness parameters can be approximated consistency and relatively uniform moisture contents.
using different correlations, SPT data can be also used to Overconsolidation throughout the whole stratum was
estimate Ir values, the following correlations were applied identified by field and laboratory tests and is considered to
to approximate the small strain shear modulus (Go) after be result from past lowering of the ground water level,
Ohsaki & Iwasaki (1973) and the undrained shear possible cementation from carbonates and other minerals
strength (su) after Sivrikaya & Togrol (2002): from weathering processes, and wetting and drying cycles
(Quigley and Ogunbadejo, 1976). Further geotechnical
Go = a. N1 b [tsf] , a = 143 and b = 0.71 [5] parameter values for each layer are found in Table 1.
su = 4.85. N1 [kPa] [6] Table 1. Representative geotechnical properties for the till
Upper Lower Unweathered
Property
where N1 is the SPT blow count corrected for overburden Crust Crust Till
pressure. Natural Water
22-32 16-20 16-24
Content, (%)
Unit Weight,
(kN/m3)
20.3 21 21.6
3 FIELD AND LABORATORY TESTING
Liquid Limit (%) 46 34 30
3.1 Wind farm site and foundation details Plastic Limit (%) 21 19 17
Clay (%) 40 29 31
The octagonal shallow foundation that is the focus of this Silt (%) 45 49 45
study has a diameter of 19 m at 3 m depth. This serves as Sand (%) 15 20 21
a base for a 2.3 MW wind turbine with an 80 m hub height OCR 2-5 2-3 1-1.5
and triple bladed rotors with a 93 m diameter. The site is Go (MPa) 100-120 60-200 60-80
Undrained Shear
located in a simple geographical and environmental area 100-150 150-250 100-130
Strength (kPa)
in the Great Lakes region of Southern Ontario. The area is
underlain by carbonate-rich clayey silt tills and is located
at the convergence of four major geological deposits. 3.3 Overview of site investigation
These consist of the Port Stanley and Tavistock tills,
glaciolacustrine sand and gravel, and glaciolacustrine A number of boreholes were drilled adjacent to the turbine
clayey silt. These materials were laid down in the Port foundation to depths of twice the foundation diameter to
Bruce Stade (c. 14,800 years bp.) during the re-advance evaluate the soil profile, perform in situ tests and collect
of the Laurentide Ice Sheet of the Late Wisconsin. These high-quality samples for laboratory testing spaced at 3 m
subglacial lodgement tills are calcareous and fine-grained, to allow for later cross-hole geophysical testing. A track-
suggesting that the ice overrode and incorporated fine- mounted drill was used for the drilling activities. In situ
grained glaciolacustrine sediments deposited during the testing adjacent to the boreholes consisted of SPT, field
previous Erie Interstade. This has created approximately shear vane, cross-hole geophysics and seismic SCPTu,
40 to 45 m thickness of clayey silt tills with interbedded and was conducted to depths of 30 m. Piezocone
glaciolacustrine sediments. The bedrock is shale with dissipation tests [with a u2 (type 2 piezocone) filter
limestone-dolostone-shale interlayers. location] were also conducted by stopping the cone
penetration at certain depths and monitoring the decay of
3.2 Soil description and basic properties excess pore pressures, typically until at least 50%
dissipation of the initial excess pore pressure. To
The till deposit can be divided into three zones: a heavily complement the in situ test results, a full suite of
weathered oxidized upper crust from 0 to 1.5 m, a partially laboratory tests were also conducted for soil classification
weathered lower crust that transitions from an oxidized to and geotechnical properties.
an unoxidized state between 1.5 and 4.5 m and an
unweathered clay till from 4.5 m to a depth greater than
3.4 Typical field and laboratory data the till deposit indicating a stiff consistency. Only a single
N1 value for the weathered till of 43 per 0.3 m of
A representative CPT profile of the till deposit from one of penetration was recorded indicating a hard consistency.
the test locations is presented in Figure 2, showing total The N1 values range from 11 to 20 per 0.3m of
cone tip resistance (qt), sleeve friction (qs), and friction penetration for the unweathered till indicating a firm to stiff
ratio (fr). Tip resistance readings clearly show fluctuations consistency.
between 1 MPa to 3 MPa for the first 1.5 m depth
Corrected SPT Blow Count (N1)
reaching a peak value of 4.5 MPa at 0.5 m (upper crust).
Between 1.5 m and 2.5 m depth there is a steady 0 10 20 30 40 50
0
increase of qt from 2 MPa to 6 MPa and then a decrease
from 6 MPa to 2 MPa for the subsequent 1.5 m (lower
5
crust). For depths below 4.5 m, the tip resistance remains
around 2 MPa (unweathered till). The variations along the
first 4.5 m depth are likely related to localized weathering 10
and the presence of cracks and fissures. Sleeve friction
varies from 0 to 300 kPa for the first 3 m, decreasing for 15
Depth (m)
the subsequent 7m to 25 kPa, where it remains constant
for the rest of the profile. Based on the fr and qt values it is 20
possible to characterize the soil deposit as a heavily over
consolidated silty clay (stiff to very stiff) between 0 to 1.5 25
m, heavily overconsolidated silty clay “crust” (hard)
between 1.5 to 4.5 m, and an overconsolidated silty clay 30
(stiff to very stiff) below 4.5 m depth.
35
Cone Tip Resistance Sleeve Friction Friction Ratio
(MPa) (kPa) (%) 40
G 1
= 0.74 [8]
Go γ
1+( )
γref
2.17.PI
γref = [9]
1000
0
0.000001 0.0001 0.01 1
10
Shear Strain (%)
1D Below
Depth (m)
4 DETERMINATION OF RIGIDITY INDEX
Foundation
20
To investigate the applicability of the various methods of
determining rigidity index for the chosen problem, different
approaches were used to derive the rigidity index (I r) with
depth. The majority of the methods are described in 25
Section 2 and they depend on parameters from in-situ
tests such as CPT and SPT (equations 3, 4, 5 and 6) and
laboratory classification and stress-strain tests (equations
30 SCPT
1 and 2). These results are shown in Figure 5 along with
two other methods of deriving rigidity index. Small strain Equation 1
Go values found from a seismic cone (SCPT) have been Equation 2
normalized by dividing by undrained shear strength (s u) Equation 3
35 Equation 4
from the CPT using equation [10] (Teh and Houlsby,
1991) and Nkt was taken between 11.8 to 12.1 Equation 5 & 6
Equation 11 & 12
qt −σvo 40
su = [10]
Nkt Figure 5. Summary of Ir values using different methods.
700
Strains
100 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS