Abstract:

A series of studies of suction bucket foundation in normally consolidated clay are carried out to investigate the bearing capacity of bucket foundation under inclined loads. A finite element method for assessing bearing capacity of offshore foundations or structures under eccentric and inclined loads is numerically implemented in the framework of the general-purpose FEM software package ABAQUS. In the method, a number of three-dimensional elastoplastic FEM computations for bearing capacity and failure mechanisms are conducted. The numerical results computed by the proposed method indicate that the effect of bearing capacity against vertical inclined loads is more significant than that against horizontal inclined loads. Moreover, failure envelopes in V-H loading space are reducing with the increase of eccentric distance and further investigations of a simple unique expression of failure envelopes. Finally, the three-dimensional failure envelope is formatted in different V-H corresponding to varied eccentricity. Those results by computed will provide referential resources for design and construction.

Key words: bucket foundation, inclined loading, bearing capacity, finite element method