Many geotechnical structures rely on piles or pile groups for foundation, both onshore and offshore. Predicting their load-deformation behaviour remains a significant challenge, particularly for cyclically loaded piles. The rapid expansion of offshore wind energy necessitates accurate predictions of pile behaviour under complex loading conditions induced by metocean factors, including severe cyclic lateral loading. Examples of such piles in offshore conditions include monopile foundations and anchor piles for floating offshore wind turbines. To assess the state of the art and current practices, an international benchmarking exercise was conducted within the framework of the GEOLAB project.
This exercise invited both practicing engineers and researchers to participate in a contest by submitting their predictions on the outcomes of two large-scale physical model tests on a laterally loaded pile. In the first test, a monotonically increasing lateral load was applied until a lateral displacement of up to 20% of the pile diameter was achieved. In the second test, a total of 13,000 sinusoidal lateral loading cycles were applied, divided into two packages with different mean values and amplitudes. This paper describes the methods followed by the winning team that showed the best overall performance in both monotonic and cyclic loading.