The Journal of the Acoustical Society of KoreaISSN:1225-4428(Print) 2287-3775(Online)한국음향학회

As wind turbines become larger and lighter, they are likely to respond sensitively by dynamic loads applied on them. Since the responses at resonances are particularly interested, it is required to be able to predict natural frequencies of wind turbines reliably at early design stage. To achieve this, the foundation-soil analysis is needed to be carried out and a finite element approach is adopted in general. However, the finite element approach would not be appropriate in early design stage because it demands heavy efforts in pile-soil modelling and computing facilities. On the contrary, theoretical approaches adopting linear approximations for soils are relatively simple and easy to handle. Therefore, they would be a useful tool in predicting a pile-soil interaction, particularly in early design stage. In this study an analysis for a pile inserted in soil is performed. The pile and soil are modelled as a beam and continuum medium, respectively, within an elastic range. In this analysis, influence factors at the pile head for lateral loads are predicted by means of this continuum approach for various length-diameter ratios of the pile. The influence factors predicted are validated with those reported in literature, proposed from a finite element analysis.