DESIGN OF LATERALLY LOADED PILES WITH BULGE

Several investigations on the behaviour of bulged piles have shown the benefit of this construction. Bulge means the application of vertical steel plates somewhere near ground surface to improve the lateral bearing capacity. This paper contains the description of a modified P-y curve method which is capable of calculating piles with bulge. Based on this procedure hundreds of different monopile foundations for offshore wind power plants are analysed and results are used to create design charts. Therefore the Characteristic Load Method (CLM) is expanded to considere the effect of a bulge.