Fatigue Life of High Performance Grout in Dry and Wet Environment for Wind Turbine Grouted Connections

The cementitious material in grouted connections of offshore monopile wind turbine structures is subjected to very high oscillating service stresses. The fatigue capacity of the grout therefore becomes essential to the performance and service life of the grouted connection. In the present work the fatigue life 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 tested 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, particularly at low frequency.