Response of an Installed Suction Caisson Induced by Rectangular Footing Penetration in Nonhomogeneous Clay
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 24, Issue 9
Abstract
During the construction of an offshore wind turbine (OWT) system, the lifting of the wind turbine blade requires setting up of jacks near preinstalled foundations, which could impact the existing adjacent foundations. To explore the movement characteristics of preinstalled caissons induced by the installation of rectangular footings, this study performs large deformation numerical analyses to quantify these influences. A numerical model is generated and validated against existing testing data in terms of penetration resistance of rectangular footings and soil deformation around the structure. An extensive parametric study is then conducted to quantify the influences of caisson aspect ratio, vertical distance between caisson and two rectangular footings, spacing between two rectangular footings, soil strength, the rectangular footing area, and roughness. It is found that the normalized distance between the caisson and the rectangular footing as well as the caisson aspect ratio play important roles in the movement of the adjacent caisson, with rotational angles of 0.05–0.9°, while the rest factors have limited impacts. Based on numerical results, empirical design formulae are proposed for estimating the maximum inclination angle of the caisson which can be used for engineering application.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, or codes that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The third author was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42276213).
Notation
The following symbols are used in this paper:
- Af
- area of the bottom of the rectangular footing;
- b
- width of the rectangular footing;
- c
- cohesion;
- D
- diameter of caisson;
- d1
- penetration depth of first rectangular footing;
- d2
- penetration depth of second rectangular footing;
- E
- Young’s modulus;
- h
- height of the rectangular footing;
- k
- gradient of the increase of the undrained shear strength with depth;
- L
- height of the caisson;
- l
- length of the rectangular footing;
- Nc
- bearing-capacity factor;
- Scf
- vertical spacing between rectangular footings and caisson;
- Sff
- spacing between two rectangular footings (edge to edge);
- su0
- initial soil strength;
- su
- undrained shear strength of soil;
- sum
- undrained shear strength at mudline;
- St
- soil sensitivity;
- t
- thickness of the caisson;
- z
- depth below soil surface;
- α
- coefficient of interface friction;
- γ′
- effective unit weight of soil;
- δrem
- fully remolded ratio;
- Δɛ1
- major principal strains;
- Δɛ3
- minor principal strains;
- ξ
- current accumulated absolute plastic shear strain;
- shear strain rate;
- reference shear strain rate;
- ξ95
- soil relative ductility;
- θ
- inclination angle of caisson;
- ν
- Poisson’s ratio;
- φ
- dilation angle;
- ϕ
- friction angle; and
- μ
- rate parameter.
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Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 24 • Issue 9 • September 2024
Copyright
© 2024 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 28, 2023
Accepted: Mar 5, 2024
Published online: Jul 9, 2024
Published in print: Sep 1, 2024
Discussion open until: Dec 9, 2024
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