Improving anchor design practice for offshore wind to account for geotechnical variability: application of geostatistics

This thesis focuses on optimising the design of two common types of anchors for offshore floating wind turbines (plate anchors and tension piles) subjected to tensile loads. In particular, it accounts for soil spatial variability and the uncertainty of material properties through the use of Monte Carlo Simulation and random fields. After investigating the influence of spatial variability on the development of failure mechanisms, the thesis considers the importance of a CPT-based design method and proposes and validates a statistical design framework for the reliability of tensile plate anchors or piles, based on limited but carefully chosen site investigation locations.