Bearing capacity of shallow foundations in clay with linear increase in strength and adhesion factor

In this paper, the computational lower bound (LB) limit analysis using finite element with second-order cone programming was used to investigate the LB solutions of the undrained bearing capacity of continuous footing with a linear increase in the strength profile and an adhesion factor at the soil–footing interface. A full range of parametric studies of the dimensionless strength gradients and adhesion factors at the soil–footing interface were performed in the LB calculations. The results were verified by comparison with the available solution from the method of characteristics (slip-line analysis) for perfectly smooth and rough footings. The LB analyses were able to complete a prior solution of undrained bearing capacity with a linear increase in the strength profile by incorporating the influence of adhesion factor at the soil–footing interface. Based on the nonlinear regression to the computed LB solutions, an approximate expression of the LB solution regression was proposed, which is applicable to an accurate prediction of a safe load for offshore shallow foundations in clay with an arbitrary linear increase in strength and adhesion factor at soil–foundation interface in practice.     

V-M荷载作用下双层黏土地基破坏包络线研究

地基破坏包络线的研究是复合加载模式下地基承载力设计的关键。根据建立的数值计算模型,用Abaqus商业软件分析了V-M荷载作用下,位于双层黏土地基上条形基础的破坏包络线随上层土厚度比、土层强度比的变化规律,以及地基破坏模式随荷载偏心率的变化趋势。用有效面积概念将传统竖向极限承载力换算为V-M荷载平面的破坏包络线,与数值计算结果进行对比。结果表明,公式换算方法适用于均质黏土地基,而对双层黏土地基偏于保守。     

A Method for Reinforcing the Ground Adjacent to the Footing Using Micropiles

The in-situ application of micropiles has gradually increased in limited spaces of downtown areas because the micropile has various advantages, such as low vibration and noise and compact machine size. In this study, model tests were carried out to understand the reinforcement effect induced by the mechanical interaction between the micropile and soil. The micropiles were installed in the soil adjacent to footings. Factors such as reinforced range (W) with piles, spacing (S) between piles, the installed angle (θ) of piles, and pile length (L) were considered variables in the tests. The reinforced angle (θ) was a more critical factor than the others for restraining the settlement and increasing soil stiffness in the model test results. The reinforcement effect rapidly increased around the reinforced range (W) of 2B (B: the width of a footing), the reinforced angle (θ) of 45 ～ 75°, and the pile length (L) of 3B. Based on the results of the experimental analyses, the purpose of this study is to improve the reinforcement efficiency of micropiles by recommending the most effective pattern and design method for installing them.     

Field Evaluation of the Vertical Bearing Capacity of a Screw Pretensioned Spun High-Strength Concrete Pile

This study has evaluated the vertical bearing capacity by conducting static load tests for noise-free and vibration-free screw pretensioned spun high-strength concrete (PHC) piles installed using two different methods (end-squirting shoe and pre-boring methods). Vertical bearing capacity differences seem to occur due to the displacement of soils near the external circumference of a pile, depending on the installation method. A method by which to evaluate the bearing capacity of screw concrete piles is suggested by considering the equations that already have been used to calculate the bearing capacity of piles. Based on static load tests and analysis, the pile installed using the end-squirting shoe method was assumed to be a bored pile and it was reasonable to use the equation proposed by the Japanese Geotechnical Society. At the same time, the pile installed using the pre-boring method was deemed a low soil displacement pile and so it was reasonable to apply the equations proposed for calculating the bearing capacity of the driven pile suggested by the Architectural Institute of Japan.     

有限元法在桩靴承载力计算中的应用

自升式钻井平台插桩是地基土在桩靴荷载作用下发生连续的塑性破坏的动态过程,当地基极限承载力等于桩靴荷载时插桩完成。经典土力学极限承载力理论对土体潜在滑动面做了假设,无法有效分析土体内部的破坏过程。本研究应用有限元法（FEM ）对插桩过程进行了模拟,得到地基土的破坏机制以及中间荷载下土体的应力、应变情况,通过和各理论公式计算的极限承载力进行对比分析,分析影响地基极限承载力的因素。研究表明,基础宽度与硬土层厚度的比值 B/H越大,下卧软土层越容易发生塑性破坏,极限承载力明显下降,当B/H＜0．286时,可以忽略下卧软土层对地基承载力的影响。     

Performance of small group of geosynthetic-reinforced granular piles

Granular piles are frequently used as a method of improving soft grounds as they provide increased bearing capacity and reduce foundation settlements. However, in very soft clayey soils, they may not derive their load-carrying capacity by low confining pressure provided by the surrounding soil. In such circumstances, granular piles may be reinforced with suitable geosynthetic to increase its load-carrying capacity and to reduce excessive bulging. In this study, the performance of small group of geosynthetic-reinforced granular piles (GRGPs) is examined in terms of load-carrying capacity, settlement, and modulus by laboratory model tests. The parameters investigated include modulus of reinforcement material, area replacement ratio (ARR) based on the column diameter and reinforcement length. The results indicated that increasing the modulus of the reinforcement and the ARR based on the column diameter enhances the overall performance of the GRGP group. It was also observed that reinforcement on top portion of the granular pile is sufficient to substantially increase the load-carrying capacity of granular pile group.     

复合加载下桶形基础循环承载性能数值分析

作为一种新型基础形式,吸力式桶形基础除了承受海洋平台结构及自身重量等竖向荷载的长期作用之外,往往还遭受波浪等所产生的水平荷载及其力矩等其它荷载分量的瞬时或循环作用。对复合加载模式下软土地基中桶形基础及其结构的循环承载性能尚缺乏合理的分析与计算方法。应用Andersen等对重力式平台基础及地基所建议的分析方法,基于软黏土的循环强度概念,在大型通用有限元分析软件ABAQUS平台上,通过二次开发,将软土的循环强度与Mises屈服准则结合,针对吸力式桶形基础,基于拟静力分析建立了复合加载模式下循环承载性能的计算模型,并与复合加载作用下极限承载性能进行了对比。由此表明,与极限承载力相比,桶形基础的循环承载力显著降低。     

Model and experimental study on jetting flow rate for installing surface conductor in deep-water

Jetting is preferentially adopted for surface conductor installation in deep-water oil and gas facilities. Surface conductor bearing capacity decreases due to soil disturbance, which is the main risk of jetting technology. A calculation model of the minimum jetting flow rate is established based on Bernoulli's theorem and soil mechanics. Jetting experiments are carried out to investigate the effect of jetting flow rate on the bearing capacity of surface conductor. Experiment results show that the bearing capacity of surface conductor decreases exponentially with flow rate. Considering the effect of flow rate both on hydraulic breaking soil capacity and the bearing capacity of surface conductor, a design method of jetting flow rate for installing surface conductor is proposed. This method ensures the successful implementation of jetting technology and has been successfully applied in more than 30 deep-water wells in the South China Sea and West Africa.     

海上风电嵌岩桩水平抗力影响因素研究

桩基础是我国海上风电工程中应用最为广泛的基础形式,其中嵌岩桩因其施工难度大,承载力高备受关注。与其他类型的桩基础不同,嵌岩桩的水平承载力不仅受到围岩强度的影响,更与其成桩质量与灌浆材料的强度相关。采用有限元方法分析了嵌岩深度、桩基直径与壁厚、桩身倾斜度等多种因素对嵌岩桩水平承载力的影响,提出了确定嵌岩桩水平极限抗力的标准。研究表明：桩与围岩间的灌浆环会先于桩身发生破坏,因此可将灌浆环受拉破坏作为判断嵌岩桩达到水平极限承载力的标准;桩身倾斜度对嵌岩桩的水平极限承载力影响较大,直径和壁厚的增加,均能提高桩基的水平承载力。     

考虑冲刷影响的筒型基础竖向极限承载力研究

大直径宽浅式筒型基础,阻水宽度大,在位工作期间受波浪海流作用,其周围土体易被冲刷。为研究单侧地基土体受冲刷后筒型基础的竖向极限承载力变化,通过引进冲刷率的概念,采用有限元方法研究了不同冲刷率下筒型基础的竖向极限承载力;并基于Meyerhof理论建立了计算不同冲刷率下筒型基础竖向极限承载力的极限平衡方法。研究结果表明,随着冲刷率增大,筒型基础的极限承载力出现不同程度的下降,当冲刷率为0.8时,即筒型基础单侧土体冲刷深度达6.4 m时,筒型基础的竖向极限承载力折减率为3.28%。建立的极限平衡算法可准确计算冲刷条件下筒型基础的竖向极限承载力。     

Axial compressive bearing capacity of piles in ‎oil-contaminated sandy soil using FCV

ABSTRACT

Oil and its derivatives contaminate many soils and not only affect their chemical and biological properties but also their geotechnical properties. As oil contamination may deteriorate the functioning of piles, this paper addresses the effects of oil contamination on soil–pile interactions. Axial compressive bearing capacities of two close-ended, instrumented piles were investigated in different oil-contaminated sand using frustum confining vessel. Three different oils (gasoil, crude oil, and used motor oil) at different contamination levels were considered and using some strain gauges, the toe, shaft, and the net total bearing capacity of piles, as well as load distributions along the pile length, were derived. The results show that the presence of oil between soil particles has considerable adverse effects on bearing capacities of model piles, especially the shaft bearing capacity. The oil viscosity and percentage, as well as the contaminated sand bed thickness around the piles, are the most influential parameters. The higher the oil viscosity and oil content, the lower the values of the piles’ bearing capacities in comparison to the uncontaminated sand. With some modifications on the bearing capacity parameters of CFEM method, a good agreement was observed between measured and calculated bearing capacity values.     

Finite element modeling of the tensile capacity of suction caissons in cohesionless soil

When suction caissons are used as foundations for jacket structures, the caissons are exposed to significant vertical loads. If the self-weight of the structure is relatively low, a large horizontal load may lead to tension on the foundation on the incoming side. For steady loads, such as the wind load during production, the soil response will be drained. This paper presents the results from a series of finite element analysis (FEA) on suction caissons in cohesionless soil. The analyses are performed on suction caissons with different dimensions and different soil conditions. For normalization, dimensional analyses of the calculated results are performed to create dimensionless groups. The dimensionless groups are used to establish a relation between the normalized tensile capacity and the interface strength. This relation is used to establish two formulations of the drained tensile capacity for suction caissons in cohesionless soils. One for associated plasticity and one for non-associated plasticity with the dilatation angle equal zero.     

A New Apparatus for Testing the Bearing Capacity of Calcareous Sand in Laboratory

Calcareous sand, widely spread on coral reefs in Nansha Islands, South China Sea, will be used as backfill material in oceanic engineering, but its engineering property is still elusive. It's difficult and extremely costly to conduct in-situ plate load tests to investigate the bearing capacities of calcareous soils foundation because the coral reefs are too far from the mainland and located in tidal zone. In order to study the bearing capacity and deformation behavior of calcareous soils, the authors designed an apparatus to carry out laboratory tests. The apparatus has the advantages as listed: (1) estimating the bearing capacity and deformation of soil foundation; (2) measuring the soil pressures and settlements at diffirent depths; (3) investigating the load transmission depth. Test results of calcareous sand indicate that the apparatus is suitable to test the engineering behavior of soil in laboratory.     

Physical Modeling of a Footing on Soft Soil Ground with Deep Cement Mixed Soil Columns under Vertical Loading

Deep cement mixing (DCM) technique is a deep in-situ stabilization technique by mixing cement powder or slurry with soft soils below the ground surface to improve their properties and behavior. Some of DCM treated soft soil grounds are approximately in a plane-strain condition; for example, a fill embankment on DCM improved ground. In this study, a plane-strain physical model was created with instrumentation and used to investigate the bearing capacity and failure mode of a soft soil improved by an end-bearing DCM column group. This study focuses on the observed wedge-shaped shear failure of the model ground and attempts to give an account of the failure. Two different methods are used to calculate the bearing capacity of the model ground, and the computed values are compared with the measured ones. It is found that the simple Brom's method gives a better estimate of the bearing capacity of the present model ground. It is also found that measured data of pore water pressures at different locations in the soft soil indicate coupling between failure of columns and consolidation of the soft soil. This study has presented the first time that a wedge-shaped block failure was observed for pattern of DCM treated soil ground.     

Bearing capacity and critical punch-through depth of spudcan on sand overlying clay

Spudcan may experience punch-through failure on strong over weak layered soils, such as sand overlying clay. A large deformation finite element method （LDFE） is used to simulate the penetration process of spudcan into sand overlying clay. The sand is simulated by smoothed hyperbolic Mohr-Coulomb model, and the clay is simulated by a simple elasto-plastic model which obeys Tresca yield criterion. According to the LDFE results of a large amount of cases, the effects of the strength, unit weight and thickness of the top sand layer, as well as the effect of the strength of the underlying clay on the spudcan punch-through behavior, are investigated. The critical depth occurring punch-through and the critical bearing capacity are presented in charts. Fitting equations to calculate the critical punch-through depth and the critical bearing capacity are proposed for the convenience of engineering practice.     

Estimation of Undrained Bearing Capacity for Offshore Soft Foundations with Cyclic Load

The degradation strength of soils under cyclic loading is studied and a method for deter-mining the cyclic degradation strength with cyclic triaxial tests is given in the paper.Furthermore,a dum-my static method for estimating the undrained bearing capacity for offshore soft foundation under waveloads is developed.It can consider the effect of the difference of cyclic stress for different parts of the foun-dation on both the degradation strength of the foundation soil and the bearing capacity so that the esti-mated result can better reflect the real condition of foundation under cyclic loading.The method can be ap-plied to plane and space problem.     

新型伞状锚拉拔破坏机制与承载力数值分析

锚泊基础的承载性能直接影响着海洋浮式结构物的稳定性,因而研究新型有效的锚泊基础已成为海洋工程结构设计中的关键问题之一。文中提出了一种基于海洋软土液化特性的伞状锚,充分利用桩端土体增强抗拔承载能力。应用二维颗粒流分析程序,对该新型伞状锚的安装、抗拔承载能力进行了数值模拟,并与普通锚桩进行比较分析,验证其有效性。针对伞状锚与普通锚桩在拉拔过程中的土体破坏机制,从细观角度分析了其抗拔承载能力的提高机制。研究结果表明,对于相同抗拔锚泊设计竖向承载要求,伞状锚所需材料可大为减少,安装难度明显减低,是值得推广应用的新型锚泊基础形式。     

An investigation into the lateral loading response of shallow bucket foundations for offshore wind turbines through centrifuge modeling in sand

A shallow suction bucket is a new foundation type for offshore wind turbines. Due to its large size and bulky shape, the bucket and the soil within the bucket do not necessarily deform as a whole. Moreover, limited research has been conducted on the hydrodynamic wave influence on the shallow bucket bearing response. These factors pose great challenges to the shallow bucket foundation design. This paper presents a set of centrifuge tests of a shallow bucket model subjected to monotonic and dynamic lateral loads to study the lateral bearing response of shallow bucket foundations in the field under combined loads induced by wind, waves, etc. In addition to the routine measurements (e.g., load-displacement), the soil pressures on the bucket and the distribution and evolution of the excess pore pressures in the surrounding soils are also obtained. The deformation pattern of the bucket (e.g., rotation center) is revealed through displacement measurements. Finally, the proposed easy-to-use analytical equations using the limit equilibrium to assess the bearing capacity of bucket foundations, taking into account the influence of the soil strength degradation caused by hydrodynamic wave loadings, are found to yield good results upon comparison with the centrifuge data, providing useful guidelines for the design of shallow bucket foundations.     

Evaluation of undrained failure envelopes of caisson foundations under combined loading

In this paper, results of a three-dimensional finite element study addressing the effect of embedment ratio (L/D) of caisson foundations on the undrained bearing capacity under uniaxial and combined loadings are discussed. The undrained response of caisson foundations under uniaxial vertical (V), horizontal (H) and moment (M) loading are investigated. A series of equations are proposed to predict the ultimate vertical, moment and maximum horizontal bearing capacity factors. The undrained response of caisson foundations under combined V-H and V-M load space is studied and presented using failure envelopes generated with side-swipe method. The kinematic mechanism accompanying failure under uniaxial loading is addressed and presented for different embedment ratios. Predictions of the uniaxial bearing capacities are compared with other models and it is confirmed that the proposed equations appropriately describe the capacity of caisson foundations under uniaxial vertical, horizontal and moment loading in homogenous undrained soils. The results of this paper can be used as a basis for standard design codes of off-shore skirted shallow foundations which will be the first of its kind.     

Bearing capacity of offshore umbrella suction anchor foundation in silty soil under varying loading modes

Considering the current disadvantages of present offshore wind turbine foundations, a novel anchor foundation with skirt and branches is proposed, called offshore umbrella suction anchor foundation (USAF). A series of experiments and numerical simulations were performed to explore the bearing capacity of the USAF under various kinds of loading modes. The bearing characteristics and the anchor–soil interactions are described in detail for horizontal static loading, horizontal cyclic loading, and an antidrawing (pullout) test in silty soil. In the static loading test, the load–deflection of the anchor under step loading was analyzed and the normalized curve of the load–deflection was obtained to determine the ultimate horizontal bearing capacity of the anchor under normal working conditions. Under horizontal cyclic loading, the relationship between the plastic cumulative deformation and cyclic number was determined. In addition, the responses of USAF were investigated for a low wave frequency and storm surges. In the drawing test, it was found that a “segmentation phenomenon” occurred during the test. Moreover, a method to identify the maximum antidrawing load of USAF was provided based on dynamic mechanics. The numerical results show that the use of anchor branches and skirt can enhance the bearing performance of USAF to a certain degree. However, the anchor branch has a slight positive influence on the bearing performance improvement. The USAF is not only similar to a stiff short pile, but a rotation occurs. The failure envelope under composite loading (V-M) was obtained and the changes associated with changes in the aspect ratio of the internal compartment were clarified.