STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF PILE CAP AS WIND TURBINE FOUNDATION

Resumo

This paper analyzes the structural behavior of reinforced concrete pile caps, as onshore wind
turbine foundations, using tridimensional numerical models. In order to do, four finite elements models
were constructed, with the aid of the ANSYS software. It was adopted as variables: i) consideration or
not of the soil under the pile cap base; and, ii) soil (under the pile cap base) stiffness. All the materials
constitutive models were considered as with linear elastic behavior. The interest results were: pile ́s
reaction; division of loading between soil and piles; pile cap ́s displacement; radial normal stress and
bending moments in the pile cap.