Fatigue Life of High Performance Grout for Wind Turbine Grouted Connection in Wet or Dry Environment

Grouted connections of monopile supported offshore wind turbine structures are subjected to loads leading to very high oscillating service stresses in the grout material. The fatigue capacity of a high performance cement based grout was tested by dynamic compressive loading of cylindrical specimens at varying levels of cyclic frequency and load. The fatigue tests were performed in two series: one with the specimens in air and one with the specimens submerged in water during the test. The fatigue life of the grout, in terms of the number of cycles to failure, was found to be significantly shorter when tested in water than when tested in air.