The role of fabric anisotropy on cyclic loading of offshore soils: a grain-scale investigation

This Research Project is part of the EPSRC CDT in Offshore Wind Sustainability and Resilience’s Offshore wind energy geotechnics Cluster.

The CDT is a partnership between Hull, Durham, Loughborough and Sheffield universities, along with over 40 industry partners. We will welcome over 65 funded doctoral researchers between 2024 and 2028. Join us to tackle some of the biggest research challenges, in a supportive environment where you can grow your own career while you help grow the offshore wind industry.

More than 100 countries worldwide have proposed net zero targets in the next few decades. Renewable offshore wind energy plays a critical role on meeting these targets, and this leads to the need for novel design and construction solutions for offshore wind structures that are subjected to dynamic loading conditions (wind, waves, earthquakes, tsunamis) in the harsh offshore environment. Those loads are transferred to the marine soil deposits around the structure foundation, and thus, the degradation of the soil’s strength and stiffness in time will dictate the structures’ lifespan. This degradation has not been fully understood and cannot be quantified with confidence, mainly due to the complex grain dynamics at the micro scale and the nature of the repetitive cyclic environmental loads.

This project proposes use of an existing bespoke miniature triaxial shearing experimental apparatus, that unlike traditional triaxial testing devices, will be able to apply cyclic loading on miniature sand samples, while the motion of each of their grains will be observed with the use of existing X-Ray Computed Tomography facilities at Durham University. Grain-scale phenomena during this complex loading condition will be systematically analysed for the first time and new correlations between the evolution of soil’s microstructure and the degradation of their strength and stiffness will be generated. Those data will then be used for the development of digital twin samples, that will be analysed computationally using the Level Set Discrete Element Method (LS-DEM). The latter is a micromechanical computational method that allows the simulation of grain-dynamics in particles with realistic shapes, extracted from the XRCT images. Both the experimental and computational output data will set the foundation for the development of new theories and mathematical models in soil mechanics and help engineers to create new design solutions for the acceleration of renewable energy infrastructure exploitation, towards more sustainable and resilient societies.

Granular soils exhibit highly anisotropic mechanical behaviour, mainly due to the non-spherical shape of their grains, with preferred orientations when forming assemblies, often called the orientation of the material’s fabric. The orientation of fabric with respect to the orientation of the applied load determines the effect of fabric anisotropy on the material’s strength and stiffness, like the role of the orientation of fibres in a loaded composite material.

During loading, fabric anisotropy evolves due to the continuously changing orientations of grains, and the effect on stiffness and strength of soils has been successfully studied macroscopically for monotonic loading. The macroscopic observations of the effects, in combination with a qualitative description of fabric evolution with the use of Discrete Element numerical modelling on idealised granular materials, has led to significant theoretical advances on the mathematical description of fabric anisotropy for monotonic loading. However, the quantification of fabric anisotropy during cyclic loading is much more complicated and still an open research question.

To achieve this research goal, the grain-scale quantification of fabric evolution during cyclic loading, must be thoroughly studied. Microfocus X-Ray Computed Tomography (μCT) has been extensively used for grain-scale experiments in soils, and more recently for quantitative measurements of fabric evolution. Conventional testing setups (e.g., the triaxial apparatus) have been miniaturised to be able to image large numbers of grains at high resolution, and such a device is available in Durham University. The quantification of fabric evolution during cyclic loading is not extensively investigated yet and the alternation of loading from triaxial compression to triaxial extension during cyclic loading is the main key triggering of the anisotropic behaviour of the soil. Finally, by using the XRCT images to develop digital twin samples with an open-source implementation of the LS-DEM method in YADE, grain-scale simulations can complement the experimental data, where the experiments will be used to validate the numerical results. This combination forms a complete characterisation, both experimental and computation, of the evolving properties of the material in cyclic loading.

The goal of the project is to shed light in unexplained phenomena that happens in the micro-scale during the repetitive cyclic loading that offshore soils exhibit next to offshore foundations during complex environmental loading conditions. It will form the foundations for new theories in offshore soil mechanics, specifically considering the complexities of cyclic loading.

Training & Skills

You will be trained to use the XRCT facility at Durham University and trained in scientific computing and high-performance computing by the Advanced Research Computing unit at Durham. Finally, you will develop skills on scientific writing, research presentation and communication.

You will benefit from a taught programme, giving you a broad understanding of the breadth and depth of current and emerging offshore wind sector needs. This begins with an intensive six-month programme at the University of Hull for the new student intake, drawing on the expertise and facilities of all four academic partners. It is supplemented by Continuing Professional Development, which is embedded throughout your 4-year research scholarship.

Entry requirements

If you have received or expect to achieve before starting your PhD programme a First-class Honours degree, or a 2:1 Honours degree and a Masters, or a Distinction at Masters level a degree (or international equivalents) in Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Applied Physics, or any other Engineering/Physics related degree, we would like to hear from you.

If your first language is not English, or you require a Student Visa to study, you will be required to provide evidence of your English language proficiency level that meets the requirements of the Aura CDT’s academic partners. This course requires academic IELTS 7.0 overall, with no less than 6.0 in each skill. Please contact auracdt@hull.ac.uk for further guidance.

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