Quantification of water distribution in chalk/pile interface after pile installation

Carbon emissions, from electricity generation, is a significant contributor to global warming. With wind power maturing as a sustainable source of clean energy, wind farms are increasingly moving offshore to take advantage of higher wind speeds. However, a lack of understanding of how pile foundations in saturated chalk resist loading has led to industry-wide over-conservative safety factors. As a result, costs have increased by 50%. In this proposal, we intend to make use of IMAT to perform Neutron Computed Tomography on a physical simulation of pile installation in chalk. We expect to quantify and compare the difference of water content in the crushed chalk at the interface of the pile and the undisturbed chalk far away from the pile.