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On the quasi-static granular convective flow and sand densification around

pile foundations under cyclic lateral loading

Article in Granular Matter · January 2012

DOI: 10.1007/s10035-011-0305-0

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On the quasi-static granular convective flow and sand densification
around pile foundations under cyclic lateral loading
Pablo Cuéllar, Steven Georgi, Matthias Baeßler, Werner Rücker

BAM Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (Federal Institute for Materials Research
and Testing) - Division 7.2 “Buildings and Structures“. Unter den Eichen 87, 12205 Berlin,
Germany
TEL. +49 / (0)30 / 81043888
FAX. +49 / (0)30 / 81041727
pablo.cuellar@bam.de
www.bam.de

Abstract The saturated sand surrounding an offshore pile foundation under quasi-static cyclic lateral load can show the
physical phenomena of macromechanical densification and convective granular flow. Based on the results from physical
model tests at different geometrical scales, this paper provides a certain quantification of such phenomena and discusses
their causes and consequences. The progressive sand densification leads to subsidence of the soil surface and a
significant stiffening of the pile behaviour. Conversely, the ratcheting convective motion of two closed cells of soil
beneath the pile-head is responsible for an endless grain migration at the soil surface, the inverse grading of the
convected material and a direct shear of the sand at the distinct boundary of the revolving soil domain. In this respect,
and from a macromechanical perspective considering the soil as a continuum, it appears that the convecting material
tends to follow gradient lines of shear stress during its ratcheting motion. Concluding the paper, the practical relevance of
these phenomena and their extrapolation to other conditions are briefly discussed.
Keywords: Offshore pile foundation, cyclic loading, ratcheting, granular convection, densification.

surrounding soil (mainly sandy soils in the case

1. Introduction
In the context of the offshore wind power
generation, the installation of large monopiles
of up to 8 metres in diameter and about 30
metres of embedded length is currently being
considered feasible, and in some cases even
necessary, for a safe foundation of the wind
turbines on the sea-bed [1,2]. The reason for
such extensive dimensions of the foundation
stems from the need to withstand the harsh
loading conditions imposed by the marine
environment, which are characterised by large
bending moments and relatively high ratios of
lateral to vertical loads (see Figure 1) and
typically involve large numbers of load cycles
caused by the wind and sea waves (in the order
of 109 cycles during the turbine’s service
lifetime).
However, there are still many open questions
concerning the behaviour of such foundations
and their cyclic interaction with the
of the North Sea).
The main purpose of the experimental
investigations reported here was to study the
structural stability of laterally loaded offshore
piles embedded in sand after the application of
several millions of load cycles, and specifically
to assess whether a brittle failure as in the case
of axially loaded piles could take place or not.
However, the quasi-static experiments have
also shown some singular phenomena within
the embedding soil, such as an endless granular
flow and the formation of closed convective
cells, which resemble fluid-like behaviour and
hint towards the special properties of granular
materials, often considered a fourth state of
matter apart from solid, liquid and gaseous [3].
This paper quantifies to some extent such
phenomena and discusses their origin,
consequences and practical relevance for the
offshore foundation.

1

Fig. 1 Approximate dimensions of a 5-MW offshore
wind turbine with monopile foundation and order of
magnitude of the maximum loads during the 30-years
return period storm in the North Sea
2. Motivation and scope
The effects of cyclic loading are only seldom
taken into account explicitly during pile design,
but it is well known and widely accepted that
cyclic axial loading of piles can cause a so-
called friction fatigue [4,5], which eventually
can lead to a sudden failure of the pile. The
origin of such phenomenon appears to lie on
the cyclic densification (and hence contraction)
of the soil at the pile-soil interface, which leads
to a reduction of the radial stress exerted by the
far field on the pile shaft and thus to a
reduction in pile bearing capacity. This can
have particularly serious consequences due to
the potentially abrupt nature of such failure,
where the progressive decrease of radial stress
at the interface might remain unnoticed while
the brittle failure might only happen after the
application of several tens of thousands of load
cycles with a seemingly stable behaviour of the
pile (see for instance [6] or [7]).
In contrast, it is generally assumed that the
cyclic lateral loading of piles in sand normally
involves a rather benign behaviour of the pile:
an attenuation of the cyclic displacements and
only potential serviceability problems rather
than an eventual loss of mechanical
equilibrium (see the decreasing rate of cyclic
permanent displacements shown for instance in
[8-10]). However, such assumption is based
mainly on experimental tests with a low
number of load cycles (from the few tens or
hundreds of cycles in the early investigations to
the tens of thousands of cycles in recent
works).
Since the pile foundations in the offshore
environment are exposed to millions of load
cycles during their service life-time, the
absence in the literature of empirical studies of
lateral pile behaviour in such range of number
of cycles prompted the performance of the
physical model tests in reduced scale presented
in this paper. The loading schedules, each of
them including millions of cycles, were
therefore aimed at elucidating whether an
abrupt failure analogous to those shown by the
cyclic axially loaded piles could also take place
at some point in the long-term when the cyclic
loading is applied laterally.
In the course of the experiments, the authors
observed consistently some progressive
subsidence of the soil around the pile and a
particular grain migration following convective
patterns, which were presented and discussed
in [11]. There, the origin of these phenomena
were attributed respectively to two consecutive
phases of soil deformation, the first one
characterised by the densification of the sand
under the effects of cyclic solicitation, and a
second phase marked by the formation of
convective ratcheting cells of soil around the
pile-head, whereby the existence of two clearly
distinct soil domains, namely the convected
and static soil domains, and a limiting direct
shear surface between them were proposed (see
Figure 2).
In this paper, the results from further
experiments confirming these phenomena are
presented and several open issues are
2
addressed. Among others, a comparison of
physical tests at different geometrical scales
(1:100 and 1:30) is put forward and the limits
of the densification phase and subsidence cone
as well as the extents of the convected soil
domain are discussed.
Fig. 2 Convected and static soil domains within the
saturated sand surrounding a cyclic laterally loaded pile
and close-up details of the sheared material at the
transition surface [11]
Furthermore, topographic measurements of the
soil surface before and after the tests show that
cyclic densification and soil improvement do
effectively occur at some stage during the tests,
whereby the differential soil volume between
the original and final states indicates the
averaged degree of densification.
Finally, the shape of the direct shear surface at
the transition between the static and convected
soil domains is here investigated and discussed
in the light of results from simulations with a
numerical model of the pile-soil system.
3. Physical evidence
3.1. Physical testing in 1-g conditions
Physical testing in a reduced scale implies that,
in order to be able to relate the results with the
corresponding variables of the prototype
system in real size, there are certain conditions
that must be met so that the kinematic and
constitutive similarity between the systems is
preserved. However, the satisfaction of such
scaling conditions for similarity in granular
systems is in general not a trivial matter (see
e.g. [12,13]). Among other technical
difficulties of physical tests with geomaterials,
the direct scaling of the grain dimensions is
particularly problematic, since it may introduce
undesired cohesive forces into play. Moreover,
the pressure dependence of the soil’s
constitutive nature implies that, under 1-g
(natural gravity) conditions, homologous points
of the soil in the model and prototype will
show different deformational behaviour since
they are subject to different stress conditions.
In order to preserve the constitutive similarity
across the scales, special techniques need to be
adopted so that the stress levels at homologous
points in model and prototype are equal (e.g.
the centrifuge testing, the fluid-gradient
method or the pressure-vessel confinement, as
shown for instance in [14,15]). Given the
practical difficulty to fulfill simultaneously all
the scaling laws and assuming a certain
constitutive dissimilarity between model and
prototype, the physical tests presented here
were performed in 1-g conditions for the sake
of simplicity and repeatability.
The procedure to obtain the similarity
relationships for physical tests is normally
based on Buckingham’s Π-Theorem [16,17]
and basically consists on identifying the
quantities relevant for the physical relation
under consideration and deriving suitable
dimensionless combinations of variables Π that
need to be equal in both scales (see for instance
[18], [19] or the recent [20]). Based on the two
independent ratios between model and
prototype to be kept in the 1-g tests (ratio of
geometrical lengths λ and ratio of gravity
accelerations κ=1), the conservation of the
combinations Π across the scales leads to the
scaling rules for the rest of physical quantities,
which are summarised in Table 1, extracted
from [21] and [12]. The interested reader may
find the specific dimensionless combinations Π
used for these investigations in [22] and [23].
3
Table 1 Summary of scaling laws for 1-g physical tests in relation to the geometrical scaling factor λ. Subscripts “M”
and “P” denote the model and prototype scales respectively
Physical quantity Scaling law
Length, L LM = LP / λ
Force, F FM = FP / λ3
Distributed line load, q qM = qP / λ2
Stress (or Pressure), σ σM = σP / λ
Unit weight, γ γM = γP
Moment, M MM = MP / λ4
Bending stiffness, EI (EI)M = (EI)P / λ5
Time, t tM = tP / λ1/2
Frequency, f fM = fP / λ-1/2
3.2. Experimental setups and testing
schedules
With the main goal of a qualitative assessment
of the long-term behaviour of the foundation
rather than the quantification of the complex
phenomena associated to the cyclic pile-soil
interaction, the authors have been carrying out
physical tests at geometrical scales of 1:100
and 1:30 of a monopile prototype with 7.5
metres in diameter and about 30 metres of
embedded length.
The main magnitudes in the tests compared to
those of the selected prototype are shown in
Table 2, while the experimental setups are
illustrated in Figure 3. The soil used for the
tests was the Berliner sand, which is a narrowly
graded sand with rounded grains whose
granulometric properties are described in [24].
The sand was placed in a dense state (for all the
tests approximately between 93% and 97% of
the ASTM Proctor density) and then flooded
with water until full saturation.
For the open-ended hollow model piles,
different materials were employed (PVC and
Aluminium for the 1:100 and 1:30 models,
respectively). The flexural stiffness of these
piles was slightly higher than what it should
have been according to the scaling laws
presented before, but neither a softer material
with the appropriate dimensions nor piles with
Dimensions
L [m]
F [N]
F / L [N/m]
F / L2 [Pa]
F / L3 [N/m3]
F x L [N m]
F x L2 [N m2]
T [s]
1 / T [Hz]
thinner walls were commercially available
within reasonable cost margins. Furthermore,
in view of the elevated loads required by the
hydraulic jacks for the pile installation (up to
90 KN of axial loading) a strict scaling of the
pile wall thickness would have also caused
driveability problems (pile buckling).
Finally, in order to investigate the
characteristical grain migration towards the
pile, several patterns of bands (each 2 cm
thick) with coloured sand grains were placed
on the soil surface, as reported and described in
[11,24]. The average size of the coloured
grains was about 2 mm.
Concerning the cyclic pile solicitation,
harmonic loading schedules with different
amplitudes and average loads were applied,
including one-way and two-way asymmetric
sinusoidal loads at frequencies of 1 Hz and 0.5
Hz and maximum loads of up to 27% and 20%
of the static ultimate capacity of the piles,
respectively for the tests at 1:100 and 1:30
scale. The static capacity was eventually
measured to range around 150 N at a pile-head
displacement of 0.1 D for the model scale
1:100 and around 4.8 kN for the system at scale
1:30. Additionally, a force lever arm with
respect to the pile-head level (i.e. the mudline)
equal to the embedded length L was kept for all
the testing programs. With reference to the
scaling laws for 1g model tests presented in
4
Table 1, such load magnitudes represent million load cycles due to the elevated
approximately the extremal lateral loading that logistical expense associated to each test in
an offshore prototype in the North Sea might such a scale.
suffer with a return period of 50 years (see for
instance [1,2]). 3.3. Observed phenomena
The loading frequencies were chosen for
Considering that the focus of this paper lies
practical purposes aiming to avoid inertia
mainly on the physical phenomena taking place
effects and pore pressure variations, and
within the soil, this section is devoted just to
incidentally correspond approximately to a
the observed soil subsidence, grain migration
prototype loading frequency of 0.1 Hz, or
and convective granular flow. Concerning the
conversely to a wave period of 10 seconds,
observed behaviour of the pile itself, here it
typical of the offshore environment. Given the
may suffice to point out that the pile lateral
relatively high permeability of these clean
displacement and inclination did consistently
sands and the extremely short drainage paths to
increase for all tests following an attenuating
the surface in the models, these frequencies and
pattern (i.e. with an ever-decreasing but never
the load magnitudes were considered to be low
vanishing rate of accumulation) while the
enough to disregard the possibility of any
amplitude of cyclic displacements always
significant pore pressure accumulation within
showed a certain decaying character. The
the soil. Being out of the scope of this paper,
interested reader may find further details about
such extent has been investigated numerically
the evolution of pile displacements in [24],
for the instance of a full-size prototype in
where a general empirical form for the
[25,24].
accumulation of permanent displacements is
The different loading schedules for the 1:100
proposed, including a pseudo-logarithmic-
scaled model consisted in the application of 5
linear function of the number of load cycles
million load cycles each, which means that,
featuring a term for the decay of the
with the frequency of 1 Hz, every test lasted for
displacement rate in the long-term.
about 2 months. On the other hand, the model
at the 1:30 scale was only subject to around a

Table 2 Comparison of main dimensions and magnitudes between the foundation prototype and the physical models in
reduced scales

Physical quantity Prototype Model tests 1:100 Model tests 1:30

Pile diameter, D 7.5 m 0.075 m 0.25 m

PILE

Pile’s embedded length, L 30 m 0.3 m 0.94 m

Pile’s bending stiffness, EI 2.5 x 1012 N m2 2 x 103 N m2 1.9 x 106 N m2

Sand grain size, d50 0.5 mm 0.5 mm 0.5 mm

SOIL

Sand grain unit weight, γS 26.5 kN/m3 26.5 kN/m3 26.5 kN/m3

Sand permeability, k 2.5 x 10-4 m/s 2.5 x 10-4 m/s 2.5 x 10-4 m/s

Horizontal load, H 15 MN -10 N to 40 N -0.4 kN to 1.0 kN

LOADS

Lever arm, h 30 m 0.3 m 0.94 m

Loading frequency, f 0.1 Hz 1 Hz 0.5 Hz

5
Fig. 3 Sketches of the experimental setups for the 1-g physical tests in reduced scale of a pile foundation under cyclic
horizontal loading H and embedded in saturated sand. Prototype replication in geometrical scales of 1:100 (a) and 1:30
(b) respectively

measured elevations relative to the position of

3.3.1. Soil subsidence and densification the original soil surface.
A plot of the surface profile along the loading
As advanced in the introduction to this paper,
axis and perpendicular to it illustrates some
the cyclic lateral loading was observed to cause
geometrical details of the subsided cone, as
a pronounced subsidence in the immediate
shown exemplarily in Figure 5 for the scale
vicinities of the pile, while in the outskirts of
1:100. There, it can be seen that the base of the
the subsided cone the sand would typically
subsided cone (excluding the emerged part) is
emerge, forming two small hills with elongated
an almost perfect circle, with a diameter of 3D
crescent-moon shape, similar to those reported
in both directions. Such circular regularity of
by Brown et al. in their field tests [26].
the cone is a remarkable feature, since both the
The cause of the progressive subsidence can be
lateral loading and the soil heave did only take
attributed to the grain rearrangement and, in
place along a single direction and in an
general, densification of the sand triggered by
asymmetric way. That suggests the existence of
the pile’s cyclic lateral displacements, whose
out-of-plane grain displacements within the
existence and extent were verified by
soil, which was later confirmed by the use of
performing topographic measurements of the
sand markers (see next section).
soil surface before and after the tests with a 3D
Interestingly, the dimensions and geometry of
structured-light scanner. In this respect, an
the subsided cone were almost the same for all
averaged measure of the densification of the
the tests, with the mere exception of the one-
whole system accumulated during the cyclic
way loading test, which produced an
loading was estimated as the difference
elongation of the subsided zone along of the
between the heaved and subsided volumes,
loading axis (i.e. an ovalization) with a
taking as a reference the original soil surface
maximum diameter of 7/3 D. This means that
mapped before the test.
the extension of the densified region is
An example of the scanned topography of the
significantly smaller for the one-way test as for
soil around the pile after the application of the
the two-way counterparts, which would be
cyclic loading is shown in Figure 4 for both
consistent with the observations made by
test scales, where the colour field shows the
Brown et al. [26].

6
Fig. 4 Subsidence and heave surveyed with a topographic scanner after the tests. Colour field shows measured height
difference relative to the initial topography before the tests. Physical test in 1:100 (a) and 1:30 (b) geometrical scales
respectively

In order to quantify somehow the sand
densification, a spatial integration of the
surface elevations with respect to a given
reference provides an estimate of the absolute
volume of the soil for both the initial and final
states.
In none of the tests did the heaved volume add
up to account for the whole subsided one, so
the cyclic densification of such very dense sand
did indeed take place (at least in an average
sense) for all the tests. For the tests in the 1:100
scale, the absolute difference between the
subsided and heaved volumes was measured to
range between 550 cm3 and 620 cm3. As an
order of magnitude, consideration can be made
that, since the model pile had 7.5 cm in
diameter and 30 cm in embedded length, 620
cm3 represents around 47% of the soil volume
enclosed by the pile.
Finally, and concerning the temporal evolution
of the subsidence, the fact that all of the tests
tended to reach quickly a steady form and
magnitude of the subsided cone, consistently
within the first hundred thousand of cycles,
reinforces the idea that the observed subsidence
is mainly due to the cyclic densification of the
surrounding soil, which after a certain number
of load cycles reaches its maximum density,
sooner or later depending on the magnitude of
the loads. Afterwards, the soil’s void ratio in
that zone would be practically unaffected by
further cycles, regardless of their number and
magnitude, and no more significant plastic
volumetric strains would take place around the
pile.

Fig. 5 Photogrammetric scan of subsided zone and measured surface profiles along the loading axis (B-B’) and
perpendicular to it (A-A’)

7
Fig. 6 Hardening effects of soil densification on the pile behaviour. (a): Evolution of amplitude of pile-head cyclic
displacements for different tests at 1:100 scale. (b): Evolution of pile bending moments at half the embedded depth,
compared with measurements from control strain gauges outside the soil

This also agrees with the experimental fact that the signal as explanation for the reduction in
the amplitude of pile-head cyclic displacements the measured moments.
tends to reduce until a certain point, after
which it remains rather stable (generally at 3.3.2. Superficial migration
some point between N=104 and N=105 cycles,
Noteworthily, a continuous grain migration
see Figure 6-a). That point would mark the
towards the pile was consistently observed
moment where the soil around the pile has
during all of the tests at both scales, taking
reached its maximum density, since then no
place along with the local subsidence discussed
more increments of soil stiffness would take
in the previous section. Therefore, the tests
place and hence no further reductions of
were devised incorporating bands of coloured
displacement amplitude would be caused.
markers on the soil surface to analyse such
This very same argument of an initial rapid
“steady-state” grain migration and trace back
densification of the soil around the pile and its
its causes.
consequent stiffening of the pile’s lateral
The recorded images (see some instances in
behaviour is also supported by the obtained
Figure 7) show that the laterally loaded pile
measurements of pile bending moments, which
acts effectively as a permanent attractor (or
were recorded with strain gauges at a depth
sink) at the soil surface and that the inflow of
half-way between the soil surface and the pile-
sand grains at the pile-soil interface starts
base (see Figure 6-b). The measured data
immediately with the beginning of the cyclic
shows a progressive reduction of bending
loading. This way, with an initial migrating
moments at that depth (and exclusively there),
speed around a millimetre per hour, the first
which hints towards the increasing rigidisation
grain marker band (the red markers) would
of the upper layers of soil. The other two strain
normally disappear within the first day of
gauges, which were installed for calibration
loading, while the rate of motion always tended
and control during the test and in theory should
to decrease progressively and eventually
not be affected by the soil densification, show
stabilize at an estimated average rate of a
as expected a fairly constant level of bending
couple of millimeters per day (i.e. approx. 20
moments, hence excluding an electrical drift of
nanometres per load cycle).

8
Fig. 7 Progression of the granular migration at the soil surface. State of the coloured sand markers at three different
moments of a physical test in a 1:100 scale. Pictures taken from underneath the pneumatic actuator (i.e. the perspective
line is coincident with the loading axis)

By the end of the tests after 5 million load general not experience any substantial
cycles, the particle migration was in all cases migration.
still active and at a rather constant speed, with
markers from the previously swallowed 3.3.3. Convective granular flow
coloured bands appearing back into the soil
The drainage and excavation of the soil after
surface at some distance from the pile, and then
the tests revealed in all cases the existence of
being mixed and drawn back to the pile along
two distinct domains within the soil that
with the rest of sand particles affected by the
suggest a closed-cell convective pattern of
grain migration, clearly indicating the closed
grain migration, and, notably, also a dark
convective nature of the migration (see [11]).
transition band at the limit between the two
Interestingly, such endless pattern of grain
domains (see Figure 8).
movement towards the pile was always
The convected domain, located always beside
observed to happen radially in every direction
the pile-head and right underneath the soil
of the soil’s surface plane, even along the
depression, featured in all cases a
orthogonal to the loading direction.
heterogeneous mixture of sand grains and
The event horizon of the granular migration
coloured particles from the different marker
(i.e. the limit within which any particle at the
bands. For the two-way tests at the 1:100 scale,
soil surface would be attracted towards the
it reached a depth of about a third of the
pile) was observed at a distance of around 6 cm
embedded length along the pile-soil interface,
from the pile wall for the tests at model scale
while the one-way testing with the same
1:100, and around 11 cm at the 1:30 scale.
loading amplitude seemed to produce a
Sand particles beyond these limits did in
convective cell of smaller dimensions.

Fig. 8 Convective cells observed in physical tests at different geometrical scales. Soil excavation along the loading axis,
after testing at the geometrical scales 1:100 (a) and 1:30 (b) respectively

9
The very same phenomena were also observed
in the larger 1:30 scale tests, where,
incidentally, the convected domain reached the
same proportional depth as in the smaller scale
tests, namely a third of the pile’s embedded
length (see Figure 8). The extents of the
convected domain for the different tests are
summarised in Table 3.
Concerning the second soil domain, the static
one, it encompassed the rest of the soil, from
the far field soil right up to the limits of the
transition band, and it was always characterised
by a complete absence of coloured sand
markers.
Noteworthily, the transition surface separating
the convected and static domains featured the
presence of very fine dark particles which were
generated by the direct shearing taking place
between the moving and the static soil masses,
whereby the abrasion occurring at the contact
between sliding grains did wear off the paint-
coating of the sand markers (see [11]).
As regards to the three-dimensional geometry
of the convected domain, it can be observed
that the migrated markers and the dark
transition surface were also present in vertical
planes along directions other than the loading
line, although only reaching shallower depths
and narrower extensions. This is depicted by
Figure 9 which shows several soil cuts along
different vertical planes and the final
Table 3 Extents of convective cells measured after different physical tests
Physical test Loading range
1:100 ; Two-way -10 N to 20 N
1:100 ; Two-way -10 N to 30 N
1:100 ; One-way 0 N to 30 N
1:30 ; Two-way -400 N to 1000 N
NOTES: Depths as measured below subsided soil surface; Widths as measured from pile surface.
(*): Estimated after static lateral capacity test. (**): The two convective cells were in this case asymmetric. The one
on the pile’s side under higher loads (1 KN) featured a smaller cell, reaching a depth of about 20 cm (see Figure 8-b).
excavation of the convected soil domain right
up to the transitional direct-shear surface.
A remarkable feature is the absence of any
convected material within the vertical plane
transversal to the loading direction. There, the
sand grains at the soil surface first migrate
radially towards the pile, that is, moving within
their vertical plane containing the pile. But
once they reach the pile and penetrate into the
soil at the pile-soil interface, they seem to
experience an out-of-plane convection that
deviates their flow towards the loading axis.
The three-dimensional shape of the convected
soil volume interpolated out of the different
soil cuts is sketched in Figure 10.
As a final observation, the sand grains within
the convected domain presented consistently a
notable size segregation and inverse grading,
with the coarser particles being typically found
in the upper parts of the domain (see Figure
11). This phenomenon of upward coarsening,
also known as the “Brazil nut” effect, appears
to be one characteristical consequence of the
convective motion of granular matter (see e.g.
[27-29]), which may be explained by the higher
mobility of the smaller particles which are able
to reach deeper regions and also owing to the
fact that once the bigger particles reach the
surface it is more difficult for them to enter
again into the bulk of the soil.
Depth of convection Width of convection
9.5 cm ~ 6 cm (*)
10.5 cm 6 cm
7 cm 5 cm
30 cm (**) 11 cm
10

4. Discussion
4.1. Mechanical interpretation
4.1.1. On the ratcheting motion
The convective flow of granular matter when it
is subject to dynamic excitation (vibrations and
relatively high accelerations) has been studied
and described profusely since its first report in
the 19th century by Michael Faraday, e.g. in
[30-33,3]. However, the convective flow
presented here has instead a quasi-static
"ratcheting" nature, whereby, due to the low
loading frequency and small pile-head
displacements, the induced accelerations of the
soil particles must have been negligible
compared to the earth’s gravity. For the
interested reader, a discussion on the
Fig. 9 Tomographic excavation of the convection cell through vertical planes along different radial directions and final
excavation of the distinct transition surface between the convected and the static soil domains
micromechanical origin of the granular
ratcheting and its implications for the
shakedown of cohesionless soils can be found
for instance in [34] and [35].
The actual mechanism responsible for the
ratcheting convection may be explained in the
following manner: during the cyclic lateral
loading of the pile, and every time that the pile
moves back after a loading peak, a small gap
opens at the pile-soil interface allowing the
sand grains adjacent to the pile-head to move
downwards along the interface. Once they
reach a critical depth where the gap is not big
enough and they cannot move further down,
the sand particles would then be pressed into
the soil by the advancing pile, moving a little
bit further with every load cycle, in a ratchet-
like fashion.
11
Fig. 10 Sketch of the ortographic projections of the convected soil volume reconstructed from the tomographic
excavations of the soil
A similar ratcheting motion of granular matter
coupled with a certain convective vorticity has
already been described in recent numerical
studies at a micromechanical scale (see e.g.
[36]), where it was also shown that, even under
very small loading amplitudes, a large number
of particle contacts can reach the sliding
condition and produce irreversible
deformations. Furthermore, they also provided
evidence supporting that ratcheting “is a purely
quasistatic effect”, independent of any
accelerations or damping in the material. On
the other hand, the idea of ratcheting behaviour
has also been used by several authors in the
field of soil mechanics, for instance in [37-39],
to explain the progressive accumulation of
plastic deformations of the soil under cyclic
loads.
Concerning the role of the water saturation in
the observed phenomena, the presence of water
probably did enhance the soil migration and
convective flow, since the effective stresses
within the submerged soil matrix are lower
than those within a dry material where there
would be no buoyancy. This, in turn, permits a
larger number of contacts between particles
reaching the sliding condition, favouring thus
the ratcheting displacements. On the other
hand, it appears reasonable to expect these
phenomena also to happen in dry sands,
although probably to a minor extent, and
perhaps even in partially saturated sands.
4.1.2. On the general shape of the convective
trajectories
Considering the micromechanical particle slips
and reorientations which occur under
increasing shear stress as the main source of
plastic deformation and ratcheting flow, the
12
examination of the gradients of shear stress
within the soil viewed as a continuum can
provide some clues about the trajectories of the
convected material. As explained before, the
convective motion would start as a collapse of
the loose sand grains at the soil surface down
the open pile-soil interface. Then, driven by
gradients of shear stress and towards areas of
lower confining stresses, i.e. upwards, the
migrating grains would move forward pushed
by the following grains, setting in motion a
Fig. 11 Inverse grading (upward coarsening) of the convected material. Soil excavation after physical test at 1:30 scale
whole ratcheting convective cell within the
pile-head vicinities.
At the limit where the pile-soil interface
remains “closed” and there is no inflow of new
material, i.e. where the sand grains remain
rather “static”, a direct shear would take place
between the convecting and the static soil
masses, since there the migrating grains would
have to override the standing particles in order
to move forward.
13
Such interpretation of the convective characteristical return towards the pile near the
mechanism seems to be somehow confirmed soil surface.
by the shape of the limiting direct shearing
surface observed experimentally and by 4.1.3. On the gap opening as triggering factor
inspecting the isolines of shear stress within the
Along with the cohesionless nature of the
soil during a loading peak, which can be
saturated sand, it is likely that the recurring
obtained with a numerical continuum model
opening of a gap at the pile-soil interface is the
(more details on the elastoplastic finite element
key element for the appearance of such grain
model employed here may be found in [24]).
migration and quasi-static convective cell,
As shown in Figure 12, the normals to the
because it permits the downwards movement of
isolines of shear stress (i.e. the gradients of
the grains adjacent to the pile-head.
shear stress) reproduce fairly well the shape of
the convected domain and even the

Fig. 12 Gradients of shear stress as mechanical explanation of convected geometry. (a): Isolines of shear stress obtained
by FE analysis. (b): Magnification of soil region near the pile-head and comparison to experimental evidence (c)

14
Therefore, the depth of the convection cell is authors of the simulations interpreted such
probably determined by the magnitude of the hardening effect under two-way cycling as
opening gap and the relative size of the being conditioned by the slippage of soil at the
migrating grains. As proposed before, the sand interface after each loading peak, so again the
grains would only migrate downwards at the triggering effect of the “opening” interface can
interface just until reaching the depth where the be highlighted.
gap is not big enough to let them through.
This is also supported by the three-dimensional 4.1.4. On the phases of soil deformation.
shape of the convected domain and particularly Densification and convection
by the soil cuts performed at 90° off the
The empirical evidence discussed so far
loading axis. The decreasing depth of the
suggests a two-phase scenario of pile-soil
convection cell within the vertical planes as
interaction, where the saturated sand
they depart from the loading axis and the total
surrounding a flexible pile foundation, subject
absence of convected material in the plane
to a cyclic horizontal loading on the pile-head,
perpendicular to the loading direction seem to
undergoes two main distinct phases of
agree with the idea of a strong (and perhaps
deformation and grain displacement: an initial
even necessary) coupling between the
densification-dominated phase and a
ratcheting convection and the open interface,
subsequent convection-dominated phase.
since the pile lateral loading in a single
The first phase, the densification phase, starts
direction should cause little or no gap opening
immediately after the first cycle of loading and
in the plane normal to it.
is characterised by a progressive subsidence of
At this point it is important to note that here the
the soil surface surrounding the pile. During
terms “gap” and “interface opening” do not
this phase, the cyclic compaction of the soil
imply an actual empty space between the pile
due to the pile displacements causes a grain
and the soil, which in general should only take
rearrangement and, in general, a reduction of
place in the case of cohesive or partially
inter-granular voids until the soil reaches its
saturated soils, but rather a “relaxation” at the
maximal density.
interface which is immediately filled by the
This phase would also be characterised by a
cohesionless grains accompanying the receding
progressive reduction of the amplitude of
pile.
cyclic pile displacement as a consequence of
Such relationship between granular convection
the hardening of the soil, and in general by a
and open interface appears also to imply that,
logarithmic accumulation of pile-head
for a same level of maximum loading, a two-
permanent displacements, as described for
way cyclic lateral load should produce a grain
instance in [41] or [42].
migration of greater magnitude and a deeper
The duration of this initial phase would be
convective cell than a one-way cyclic loading,
mainly influenced by the magnitude of the pile
since the two-way loading normally features a
loading and particularly by the initial relative
higher amplitude of cyclic displacement and
density of the soil. Although it may not be
hence causes a greater aperture of the pile-soil
possible to define a clear temporal limit of this
interface. The observations from the single
phase, for the presented tests it appears to have
one-way test performed here seem to indicate
lasted for a number of cycles between N=104
so (see Table 3).
and N=105.
Similarly, some numerical simulations
The same densifying explanation has been
presented in [40], which were performed with a
proposed by Gudehus for both the subsidence
hypoplastic constitutive law, have shown how
and grain migration near a cyclically axially
the two-way loading can produce some
loaded pile or wall, where the cyclic shearing
hardening of the surrounding soil and thus
would cause a net contraction of the soil near
reduce the pile-head displacements, in contrast
the structure, thereby producing a flow of
to a one-way cyclic lateral load causing mainly
material towards the latter and downwards
a progressive foundation inclination. The
“until the maximal density of the soil is

15
reached” [43]. pile-soil interaction proposed here may be
After most of the densification has taken place, drawn.
and once the soil depression reaches a rather On the empirical side, the experimental results
constant depth, a second phase starts, namely presented by Bobryakov et al. [44] also showed
the convection-dominated phase. During this two stages of soil deformation in their
endless phase, rather than producing further particular system (a retaining wall and a raking
densification of the soil, the cyclic lateral slope of confined sand in plane strain
movements of the pile would mainly cause a conditions), where they also report an initial
convective ratcheting displacement of the sand non-stationary phase with densifying character
particles. Such a convective flow explains why during the first few load cycles and a
despite the permanent inflow of material into subsequent stationary stage “with steady state
the pile-soil interface no more significant material density and unchanging specimen
densification of the soil is taking place. surface”.
This second phase would also be characterised
by a fairly constant amplitude of cyclic pile
displacements and in general by an over- 4.2. Practical relevance and extrapolation to
logarithmic accumulation of permanent other conditions
displacements, leading eventually to an
A particularly striking conclusion, if yet
incremental collapse of the pile in the sense of
unconfirmed, is that if the results of these tests
an ever-decreasing but never vanishing rate of
were to be up-scaled back to a prototype-size,
accumulation of permanent displacement.
it would mean that the granular convective
It appears reasonable to assume that in most
flow could reach a depth of up to 10 meters.
cases these two phenomena, densification and
However, the fact that so far the convected
convection, are not completely decoupled.
domain seemed to hold the scale between the
Some convective grain migration probably
physical tests at different scales has to be
takes place simultaneously with the
regarded with caution, since these model tests
densification during the first loading cycles
have been carried out under very particular 1g
and, reciprocally, some degree of further
conditions and not all the appropriate scaling
densification might also occur during the
laws have been strictly followed. Moreover, the
convection-dominated phase, as the densified
loading schedules applied to the piles during
soil would approach its maximum density
the tests included large numbers of load cycles
asymptotically.
of very high amplitude, proper of extreme
The existence of two such kinds of deformation
conditions, which do not represent the variable
regimes in cohesionless soil samples subjected
loading that a real offshore foundation might
to cyclic loading has been confirmed both
be normally exposed to. Therefore, the extent
theoretically and experimentally before and
to which these phenomena take place around
seems to suggest that such phenomena are
real-size offshore prototypes remains unclear.
inherent to the behaviour of granular materials
In any case, considering the apparent direct
rather than just related to this specific soil-
dependence of the convective flow with the
structure system. The numerical
cyclically opening interface, it may be possible
micromechanical investigations of discrete
to relate the depth and extent of the convected
granular packings by Alonso-Marroquin et al.
soil domain to the different design parameters
did indeed show short-time regimes featuring a
of the pile foundation (flexural stiffness,
fast accumulation of plastic deformation and
service loads, grain size distribution, etc...) so
long-time ratcheting regimes with slow rates of
that an extrapolation to real pile dimensions
plastic deformation, along with the formation
can be made and a clearer picture of the pile
of ratcheting convecting vortices [36]. A clear
bedding emerges. The main tasks in this
analogy between such micro-mechanical
respect would involve the determination of the
effects and the two stages of macro-mechanical
opening depth at the pile-soil interface and the

16
assessment of the gradient path of shear stress
at that depth.
Relative to the possibility of soil softening or
even liquefaction within the convective sand
around the offshore pile, the effects of any
excess pore water pressure have been
disregarded in the investigations so far, but
they might not be negligible for the case of
real-scale large-diameter monopiles, as shown
in [24]. In such cases, the lengthy drainage
paths imposed by the large pile can lead to a
progressive accumulation of the transient
excesses of pore pressure caused by the cyclic
loading, and thus to a reduction of the effective
stresses within the soil matrix. This, in turn,
would certainly enhance the mobility of the
single grains and any convective motion, since
the contacts between the grains could then
reach the sliding condition easier.
Another practical consequence might concern
the scouring protection systems for offshore
operations. Even though the phenomena
reported here are not related to the scour that
often occurs in under-water foundations, they
might interfere with any counter-measures
against it, since the soil subsidence and grain
migration will probably still occur due to the
densification and gap-openings caused by the
cyclic loading. Therefore, a re-examination of
the current scouring-protection systems (see
e.g. [45,46]) taking into account these issues
might help to assess their suitability and
improve their efficiency.
Finally, it is important to remark the possible
impact of the discussed progressive
densification on the dynamic behaviour of the
turbines. The shift of the foundation's
eigenfrequencies in the long-term due to the
densification and hardening of the soil may
have significant consequences for the turbine’s
operational thresholds if resonance phenomena
are to be avoided.
5. Conclusions and outlook
The physical phenomena of macromechanical
densification (i.e. an overall reduction of
intergranular voids) and convective granular
flow have been shown to take place in the
saturated sand surrounding a pile foundation
under quasistatic cyclic lateral loading. A
certain quantification of these phenomena,
which were consistently observed in several
model tests at different geometrical scales
under 1-g conditions, has been provided here.
Relative to the progressive sand densification
around the pile, the three-dimensional shape
and magnitude of the subsidence cone as well
as the overall volume loss have been measured
with a topographic scanner, while its
consequential hardening effect on the
foundation’s stiffness has been shown by the
amplitude reduction of the cyclic pile
displacements and its concurrent abatement of
bending moments in the embedded pile. This
progressive stiffening effect of the soil around
the pile may lead to a shift of the pile’s
eigenfrequencies and produce a significant
change in the foundation’s susceptibility to
dynamic resonance under the external loading,
as already discussed in [47].
A persistent migration of the sand grains at the
soil surface was observed taking place
concomitant with the sand densification and
subsidence, but lasting beyond them, with an
initially decreasing speed of migration which
eventually stabilised in all cases to a rather
constant rate of motion. The grain movements
were driven in all cases towards the pile and in
every radial direction, with the pile acting as a
permanent attractor with an event horizon
contained within the subsidence cone.
Such endless migration happens to be just the
visible effect at the soil surface of a couple of
convective cells of sand that surround the pile-
head down to a certain depth. The quasi-static
ratcheting nature of the convective motion
originates from the periodical gap-opening (or,
strictly speaking, stress relaxation) and material
inflow at the pile-soil interface every time the
pile recedes after a load peak, the downwards
movement of the sand grains along the
“relaxed” interface and finally their eventual
push-through into the soil mass once they
cannot move further down. The convective
cells present a distinct limiting surface where a
direct shearing of the convecting material takes
place and whose shape can be approximated
17
reasonably well by the gradient paths of shear
stress.
The nature and implications of these
phenomena may be further clarified with the
help of meshless numerical models or in the
frame of a discrete element (DEM) approach,
so that a simulation of the grain migration and
soil convection can be performed. That way, an
analysis of the results employing appropriate
discrete averaging techniques could also
provide a better insight into the shear and
volumetric strain fields, and hence to the
degree of densification and the extents of soil
subject to it.
On the other hand, it should also be possible to
characterise more accurately the migration at
the surface or in the vertical symmetry plane by
means of PIV techniques (particle image
velocimetry, see e.g. [48]), which also provides
a basis for the experimental determination of
the strain fields, as done for instance in [49].
The significance of these phenomenological
investigations can be highlighted by the fact
that the upper parts of the pile foundations are
the most relevant for their lateral bearing
capacity. A better understanding of the
physical processes inside the soil and of the
pile-soil interaction at shallow depths might
help improve the design and safety of future
foundations.
Acknowledgements The German Federal Ministry for
the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear
Safety (BMU) has kindly provided the funding for these
investigations, which were approved by the Project
Management Organisation Jülich (PTJ) and carried out
in the frame of the RAVE (research at alpha ventus)
research program. Special thanks are also due to Fred
Ziegler and Wilfried Wuttke for their helpful assistance
and technical expertise with the physical tests.
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