As monopiles become larger and installation conditions more challenging, successful foundation installation depends on more than hammer capacity. Driveability, energy transfer, soil uncertainty, acoustic performance and live monitoring are all becoming critical to installing larger foundations safely, efficiently and with greater certainty.
Before a next-generation monopile is suspended above the seabed, most of the decisions that will determine whether it is installed successfully have already been made. The foundation has been designed, the hammer selected, the vessel mobilised and the driving plan approved. The soil, however, has not agreed to any of it.
That is where the next step-up in offshore wind foundation size becomes difficult. Piles are becoming larger in diameter, longer and heavier, but the uncertainty beneath them remains. As foundations increase in size, relatively small deviations between predicted and actual soil behaviour can have significant consequences. What appears to be a minor variation in a model can lead to pile run, premature refusal, excessive fatigue and costly vessel downtime.