Validation of an experimental system for testing monopile

42 Monopiles remain the most versatile and popular way of supporting offshore wind 43 turbines. Most of the existing information on the performance of the monopile is based 44 on 1 g testing. However, a better response of such a system can be obtained if the 45 stresses acting along the monopile can be varied to represent in-situ conditions. The 46 work reported in this article attempts to achieve this using elevated stress gradients 47 acting along the length of a soil-bed (thus still using the 1g model testing hypothesis). 48 The results obtained through preliminary research are presented herein as a proof 49 of-concept for the suggested test method. The observations suggest that progressive 50 displacements ceased after a significantly low number of loading cycles as opposed 51 to thousands of loading cycles reported when the tests were conducted under 1g 52 conditions (i.e., natural stress gradient) as reported by previous researchers.