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Today large-diameter monopiles are the most common foundation type used for large offshore wind farms. This paper aims to investigate the behaviour of monopiles under monotonic loading taking the interaction between the pile and the subsoil into account. Focus is paid to a monopile used as foundation for a wind turbine at Horns Rev located in the Danish sector of the North Sea. The outer diameter of the pile is 4 m and the subsoil at the location consists primarily of sand. The behaviour of the pile is investigated under realistic loading conditions by means of a traditional Winkler-type approach and by means of the commercial threedimensional numerical program FLAC3D.