A review on the behavior of helical piles as a potential offshore foundation system

Helical piles are used mainly to resist tension forces generated by uplift and overturning moments of various structures, therefore they have been suggested as a potential alternative to driven piles as offshore pile because they provide a large uplift capacity due to the anchor effect of the helix. To date no standards are available for the assessment of the use of helical piles in the offshore environment. State-of-the art installation and uplift capacity assessment is based on field onshore tests on small helical piles. The purpose of this review is to critically evaluate the current knowledge on helical piles considering uplift capacity, cyclic load, installation torque models and the parameters affecting the installation torque, to understand whether they can be considered for potential offshore applications. The paper could be of valuable interest for engineers and contractors involved in the offshore installation of piles.