Análise não linear de blocos de concreto armado sobre estacas como fundação de aerogerador onshore considerando o atrito lateral entre as estacas e o solo

Abstract

In the search for alternative sources to meet the growing demand for energy, wind production has been highlighted due to the great potential for its use in Brazil. Given the magnitude of the foundations of wind turbines, understanding their behavior as a structure is essential for designing optimized solutions that reduce costs and facilitate the implementation of this technology on a large scale. From this perspective, this research seeks to deepen the studies on the structural behavior of foundations for onshore wind turbines, represented by reinforced concrete pile caps. Computational models were developed using the Finite Element Method (FEM) with the aid of the Ansys Workbench R20 software, considering the contribution of the lateral friction of the pile shaft in the conduction of loads to the ground, using non-linear numerical modeling. The reinforcements of a wind tower foundation were designed and two different mesh organizations were proposed: circular (CR) and orthogonal (OR). It was observed that the reinforced caps, although classified as flexible foundations due to their geometry, presented a behavior similar to that of rigid caps, with a tendency to linearize the pile reactions and vertical displacements. The results showed that the distribution of reinforcement in orthogonal mesh provided smaller vertical displacements for the blocks, a fact that was attributed to the greater stiffness of the foundation provided by this way of arranging the bars. In the different types of soils considered, the vertical displacements of the OR models were, on average, 10.74% lower than those of the CR models. On the other hand, the consumption of steel, in kilograms, was considerably lower in the CR models. The amount of steel used in the reinforcement of the CR models was 30.97% smaller than that of the OR models.