Numerical study on long-term monopile foundation response

This paper analyzes the long-term monopile foundation that undergoes numerous mechanical cycles. The semiempirical scheme is adopted to involve a mechanical constitutive model to extract stress and strains at the first cycle and polynomial-type strain accumulation functions to track the progressive plastic deformation. In particular, the strain function contains the fundamental features that require simulating the long-term response of geomaterials: volumetric strain (terminal void ratio) and shear strain (shakedown or ratcheting), the strain accumulation rate, and stress obliquity. The numerical simulation shows evolution of displacements, pile rotation, and stress redistribution along the embedded pile as the number of load cycles increases. The analysis highlights that the pile rigidity affects the pattern of horizontal stress and displacement. The repetitive lateral load enhances the lateral load resistance due to soil densification along the pile.     

Assessment of cyclic response to suction caisson in clay using a three-dimensional displacement approach

An investigation was made to present analytical solutions of cyclic response to suction caisson subjected to inclined cyclic loadings in clay using a three-dimensional displacement approach. A model representing the relationship between vertical load and vertical displacement and that between lateral load and lateral displacement along the skirt of suction caisson subjected to cyclic loadings is proposed for overconsolidated clay. For the effect of vertical load on cyclic load capacity of suction caisson, using the Mindlin solution in the case of a vertical point load, the vertical stress of soil under the base of suction caisson is presented. For the stress state of soil beneath the base of suction caisson subjected to cyclic loading, the Mohr–Coulomb failure line and critical state line are presented and the relationship between total stress, effective mean principal stress, stress difference, and pore-pressure is elucidated. The comparison of results predicted by the present method for a suction caisson subjected to cyclic loadings in clay has shown good agreement with those obtained from field tests. Cyclic behavior of clay up to failure is made clear from the relationship between cyclic tensile load, vertical and lateral displacements, and rotation and that between depth, vertical, and lateral pressures.     

水平循环荷载下海上风电楔形单桩土体变形研究

海上风电工程主要受到风、波浪及洋流等产生的水平循环荷载作用,本文研究楔形单桩基础在水平循环荷载作用下的变形规律,并探讨不同循环荷载对变形规律产生的影响,以确保风电设施正常运行。通过数值模拟建立海上风电单桩-海床模型,考虑土体超孔隙水压力的演变规律及土体致密规律,土体采用UBC3D-PLM本构模型。本文重点讨论并分析在不同水平循环荷载作用下楔形单桩基础与等截面单桩基础的桩周土体位移、塑性应变及桩基累计转角位移之间的差异。研究结果表明：楔形结构会降低桩周土体位移及塑性应变,使得楔形单桩基础旋转中心位置更低,产生倾覆的可能更小,当循环荷载比为0.7时,累计转角位移能减少41.86%;循环荷载越大,楔形单桩基础水平受荷特性越好,累计位移减少量的增长率越高。研究成果可为今后海上风电基础的选择与设计提供参考。     

A coupled soil-fluid-structure simulation of the near-field earthquake effects on gravity type quay-walls

This study focuses on non-linear seismic response of concrete gravity quay-wall structures subjected to near-fault ground motions, a subject which seems not to have received much attention in the literature. A two-dimensional coupled fluid-structure-soil finite element modelling is employed to obtain the quay-wall response. The seawater medium is represented by acoustic type, potential based fluid elements. The elasto-plastic behavior of the soil medium is idealized using Drucker-Prager yield criterion based on associated flow rule assumption. Four nodded plane strain elements are used to model the concrete wall, foundation, subsoil, backfill and seabed zones. Fluid Structure Interface (FSI) elements are considered between the seawater interfaces with the quay-wall and the seabed. Frictional contact elements are employed between the wall and soil interfaces. The numerical model is validated using field measurements available for permanent drifts in a quay-wall damaged during Kobe earthquake. Reasonable agreements are obtained between the model predictions and the field measurements. Non-linear seismic analyses of the selected quay-wall subjected to both near-fault and far-fault ground motions are performed. An incremental dynamic analysis approach (IDA) is used. In general, at least for models examined in the current study, the gravity quay-walls are found to be more vulnerable to near-field, in comparison with the corresponding far-field, earthquakes.     

考虑蠕变特性的斜坡堤软土地基变形数值分析

目前在防波堤设计和施工中,较少考虑软粘土的蠕变特性对软土地基长期变形的影响.为准确预测斜坡堤软土地基的变形水平,研究采用Plaxis二维有限元程序,利用不考虑蠕变的摩尔-库仑模型和能反映土体时间效应的软土蠕变模型,模拟某斜坡堤地基软土层施工期和工后的地基变形过程,对比分析了两种不同模型的计算结果,表明由软土蠕变模型得到...     

Investigation on the dynamic liquefaction responses of saturated granular soils due to dynamic compaction in coastal area

Dynamic compaction (DC) has been widely used for a variety of soil types and conditions in coastal area. However, as the ground water table is near the ground surface, a significant increase of pore water pressure is noticed after each impact, which results in local liquefaction and limits further drop effect. Consequently, to obtain effective compaction effects on saturated soils, it is essential for the evaluation of the liquefaction responses of soil medium caused by DC to determine the time delay between the drops and prevent ‘rubbery soil’. In this study, a numerical investigation on the liquefaction responses of saturated granular soils during DC is carried out using a coupled hydro-mechanical model. The developed model considers all the stages of DC involved in impact stage and consolidation stage. A new cap model for simulations of high strain rate behaviors of soils under DC is incorporated in the coupled hydro-mechanical model. Verification of the proposed model is performed against the previous test data and analytical result. Then, a series of parametric studies have been performed to examine the effects of the tamping energy level, hammer radius and permeability on liquefaction responses of saturated granular soils at several stages of DC. The numerical results demonstrate that the dimension of liquefaction zone is driven by the tamping energy level rather than the permeability, and strain rate has a significant effect on soil responses in DC.     

Behavior of Weak Soils Reinforced with End-Bearing Soil-Cement Columns Formed by the Deep Mixing Method

This article reports on a series of small-scale, plane strain, 1 g physical model tests designed to investigate the bearing capacity and failure mechanics of end-bearing soil-cement columns formed via Deep Mixing (DM). Pre-formed soil-cement columns, 24 mm in diameter and 200 mm in length, were installed in a soft clay bed using a replacement method; the columns represented improvement area ratios, a_p, of 17%, 26%, and 35% beneath a rigid foundation of width 100 mm. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) was implemented in conjunction with close-range photogrammetry in order to track soil displacement during loading, from which the failure mechanisms were derived. Bearing capacity performance was verified using Ultimate Limit State numerical analysis, with the results comparing favorably to the analytical static and kinematic solutions proposed by previous researchers. A new equation for bearing capacity was derived from this numerical analysis based on the improvement area ratio and cohesion ratio of the soil column and ground model.     

Nonlinear hydrodynamic pressures generated by a moving high-rise offshore cylinder

Both analytical (small time expansion) and numerical (finite-difference) approaches have been used to solve the earthquake-induced nonlinear hydrodynamic pressure acting on a rigid high rise offshore cylinder. For the high rise offshore cylinder, the most part of the flow field is independent of z and a three dimensional hydrodynamic analysis can be reduced to a two dimensional analysis. At onset, the dimensionless ground displacement ?² = 0 for the two dimensional analysis, the normalized hydrodynamic pressures across cylinder face is a constant and is independent of the radius of the cylinder. The normalized horizontal force coefficient C_fx is independent of intensity of ground acceleration and is approximately linear and proportional to ?² and its onset value is equal to π. For a linear analysis i.e. neglecting nonlinear convective acceleration, the normalized hydrodynamic pressure coefficient is also independent of the radius of cylinder. The analytical method was good for ground motion in a single direction, the results of simultaneous action of two components of ground acceleration can be obtained by the superposition of the results due to separate excitation. But the superposition method is only valid in the linear analysis. For highly nonlinear problem, the present finite difference approach is recommended.     

Study on deepwater conductor jet excavation mechanism in cohesive soil

Conductor casing jetting technique has been increasingly applied in deepwater drilling. The insight into the jetting excavation mechanisms is critical in guiding a successful conductor casing jetting operation. The real- time continuous jet excavation process is simulated with the volume of fluid (VOF) multiphase method of CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) ANSYS Fluent calculation software in the current study. The cohesive soil is modelled by using a kind of viscous fluid with Herschel-Bulkley model. In addition, a laboratory half round nozzle jet excavation test is designed for verification by comparison of the observed jet excavation profile with the numerical results. The sensitivity parameters affecting the conductor jetting excavation mechanism in cohesive soil are thus investigated. It is found that the application of Herschel-Bulkley (HB) model for cohesive soil and the VOF method of Fluent can provide a good simulation of jet excavation process. The maximum excavation depth can be determined by the undrained ultimate bearing capacity of the circular foundation with a bearing capacity factor of 6.7. The nozzle position, jet velocity and soil strength have significantly influence on the depth and width of the jet excavation profile in conductor oblique jet.     

波浪荷载及土体特性对风电单桩基础水平变形影响规律

大直径单桩基础是海上风电应用广泛的一种基础形式,严格控制桩基泥面处的位移是保证基础稳定和风机安全运营的关键因素.通过数值方法建立了单桩—海床的三维模型,将可以描述海洋砂土超固结性和结构性的弹塑性本构模型通过UMAT子程序嵌入有限元软件ABAQUS中,桩基承受的波浪荷载通过Morison方程进行计算模拟.针对无波浪荷载、仅作用于海床的波浪荷载、同时作用于桩基和海床的波浪荷载三种情况,分析了海床土的动力响应以及桩基的水平位移之间的差异,探讨了海床土体参数对桩基水平变形的影响.研究结果表明海床土体液化会导致桩基水平变形增加,海床土渗透性、超固结性、结构性对桩基水平位移影响显著,研究成果可为海上风电单桩基础的设计与运维提供参考.     

Bearing Behavior of Cast-in-Place Expansive Concrete Pile in Coral Sand Under Vertical Loading

The low side friction of piles in coral sand results in the low bearing capacity of foundations. In this paper, expansive concrete pile is utilized to improve the bearing capacity of pile foundations in coral sand. Both model tests and numerical simulation are performed to reveal the bearing mechanism of expansive concrete pile in coral sand.Results showed that the lateral earth pressure near pile increases obviously and the side friction of piles is improved,after adding expansion agent to the concrete. The horizontal linear expansion is 1.11% and the bearing capacity increased 41% for the pile, when 25% expansion agent is added. Results in finite element numerical simulation also show that ultimate bearing capacity increases with the increase of the linear expansion ratio. Besides, the area for obvious increase in side friction is below the surface of soil about three times the pile diameter, and the expansion leads to a high side friction sharing of the pile. Therefore, the cast-in-place expansive concrete pile is effective in improving the bearing capacity of piles in coral sand.     

Numerical simulation of longitudinal settlement of shield tunnel in the coastal city Shanghai

Until now more than 14 subway lines are in operation and some new lines are being built in the coastal city Shanghai. The longitudinal settlement of shield tunnel has significant effect on the safety of the subway operation. In this paper, the deformation of the shield tunnel and the surrounding soil were analyzed by the establishment of a three-dimensional model. The vertical displacements of four paths (Path 1 is on the ground; Path 2 is at the top of the tunnel; Path 3 is in the middle of the tunnel; Path 4 is at the bottom of the tunnel) are affected by the nature of the soil. The horizontal displacement is smaller than the vertical displacement and horizontal displacement of the clay is larger than that of the sand. The distribution of the pore pressure changes with soil properties around the tunnel. The pore pressure of the sand layer is larger than that of the clay layer at the same depth of underlying soil.     

The Effect of Stabilizing Piles on a Self-Supported Earth-Retaining Wall

The behavior of a self-supported earth-retaining wall with stabilizing piles was investigated using a numerical study and field tests in urban excavations. Special attention is given to the reduction of lateral earth pressures acting on a retaining wall with stabilizing piles. Field tests at two sites were performed to verify the performance of the instrumented retaining wall with stabilizing piles. A number of 3D numerical analyses were carried out on the self-supported earth-retaining wall with stabilizing piles to assess the results stemming from wide variations of influencing parameters such as the soil condition, the pile spacing, the distance between the front pile and the rear pile, and the embedded depth. Based on the results of the parametric study, the maximum horizontal displacement and the maximum bending moment are significantly decreased when the retaining wall with stabilizing piles is used. In engineering practice, reducing the pile spacing and increasing the distance between the front pile and the rear pile can effectively improve the stability of the self-supported earth-retaining wall with stabilizing piles.     

超高阶地球重力场模型的高程异常优化算法

通过分析比较标准前向列推、标准前向行推、跨阶次递推和Belikov列推4种缔合勒让德递推算法的精度、稳定性以及计算速度,提出了选取Belikov列推法来解算超高阶重力场模型高程异常;研究探讨了基于严密球谐级数展开、保留泰勒级数展开的零阶项和保留至泰勒级数展开一阶项计算模型高程异常的三种算法,并进行了实验计算分析。结果表明,保留至泰勒级数一阶项的模型高程异常既能保证计算速度也能达到足够的精度,可满足大区域高分辨率高程异常建模的需求。     

Instrumentation and Numerical Analysis of Cylindrical Diaphragm Wall Movement During Deep Excavation at Coastal Area

The lateral deflection of a cylindrical diaphragm wall and the associated ground movement induced by deep excavation are analyzed by performing site instrumentations and numerical analyses in the coastal area of Korea. Wall lateral deflection, rebar stress, and pore water pressure were measured and analyzed in eight directions. Variations of soil properties with the decrease of confining pressure are compared by performing various in situ tests before ad after excavation. To calculate the wall lateral deflection accurately, the effects of small strain nonlinearity, confining pressure, and the hysteresis loading/unloading loop developed during excavation are considered in the proposed numerical analysis. By comparing numerical results with measured ones, the importances of considering small strain nonlinearity and confining pressure reduction in the nonlinear (FEM) are emphasized. Also, the effects of wall stiffness on the performance of cylindrical diaphragm walls are studied for future similar excavation in the coastal area.     

Safety Assessment of Buried Pipeline during Pile Driving Vibration in Offshore Engineering

To assess the impact of pile driving on adjacent submarine pipelines during the reconstruction of a pier berth, the local damage model of submarine pipelines is established to explore the safety thresholds of the particle peak velocity and horizontal displacement. The results are analyzed and adjusted by the existing standards and the corresponding literatures. Then, a three-dimensional numerical model is presented to assess the feasibility of the construction of piles by the obtained safety limits, in which the nonlinear behavior of the soil and stress–seepage coupling analysis are considered. After the construction, the safety of submarine pipelines is rechecked by the measured value of the particle peak velocity and horizontal displacement. Meanwhile, the propagation law of vibration, the horizontal displacement of underground soil, and the pore pressure during pile driving are explored. The results indicate that the construction of piles of 2# mooring pier did not cause damage to adjacent submarine pipelines. However, the construction of piles of 1# mooring pier which is nearer may cause damage to submarine pipelines.     

Instrumentation and Numerical Analysis of Cylindrical Diaphragm Wall Movement During Deep Excavation at Coastal Area

ABSTRACT

The lateral deflection of a cylindrical diaphragm wall and the associated ground movement induced by deep excavation are analyzed by performing site instrumentations and numerical analyses in the coastal area of Korea. Wall lateral deflection, rebar stress, and pore water pressure were measured and analyzed in eight directions. Variations of soil properties with the decrease of confining pressure are compared by performing various in situ tests before ad after excavation. To calculate the wall lateral deflection accurately, the effects of small strain nonlinearity, confining pressure, and the hysteresis loading/unloading loop developed during excavation are considered in the proposed numerical analysis. By comparing numerical results with measured ones, the importances of considering small strain nonlinearity and confining pressure reduction in the nonlinear (FEM) are emphasized. Also, the effects of wall stiffness on the performance of cylindrical diaphragm walls are studied for future similar excavation in the coastal area.     

Behavior of Pile Group with Elevated Cap Subjected to Cyclic Lateral Loads

The pile group with elevated cap is widely used as foundation of offshore structures such as turbines, power transmission towers and bridge piers, and understanding its behavior under cyclic lateral loads induced by waves, tide water and winds, is of great importance to designing. A large-scale model test on 3×3 pile group with elevated cap subjected to cyclic lateral loads was performed in saturated silts. The preparation and implementation of the test is presented. Steel pipes with the outer diameter of 114 mm, thickness of 4.5 mm, and length of 6 m were employed as model piles. The pile group was cyclic loaded in a multi-stage sequence with the lateral displacement controlled. In addition, a single pile test was also conducted at the same site for comparison. The displacement of the pile cap, the internal forces of individual piles, and the horizontal stiffness of the pile group are presented and discussed in detail. The results indicate that the lateral cyclic loads have a greater impact on pile group than that on a single pile, and give rise to the significant plastic strain in the soil around piles. The lateral loads carried by each row of piles within the group would be redistributed with loading cycles. The lateral stiffness of the pile group decreases gradually with cycles and broadly presents three different degradation patterns in the test. Significant axial forces were measured out in some piles within the group, owing to the strong restraint provided by the cap, and finally lead to a large settlement of the pile group. These findings can be referred for foundation designing of offshore structures.     

Scarifying and fingering surfaces of plunging jets

The local surface deformation resulting from the oblique impact of a columnar water jet has been computed, using a three-dimensional large eddy simulation, as a model of the overturning jet of a breaking wave. The emergence of the secondary jet from the front face of the initial jet has been examined and the organisation of the vortices within the jet characterised. As the secondary jet emerges, the vorticity field becomes unstable under the action of the strong shear beneath the jet surface and pairs of longitudinal counter-rotating vortices stretched along the direction of the jet projection are formed. The presence of these longitudinal vortex pairs creates convergent surface flows, resulting in the formation of longitudinal scars on the rear face of the projecting jet. Following significant growth of the scars on both its upper and lower surfaces, the jet decouples into fingers. The lateral widths of the longitudinal vortices provide a minimum measure of the finger size. A horizontal Froude number Fr_h, representing a measure of strength of horizontal shear in a gravity-dominated impacting flow is defined, which characterises the organisation of the longitudinal vortices occurring in the shear flow, and the resultant formation of scars and fingers. For higher Fr_h, stronger longitudinal vortices and deeper scars are formed at longer lateral intervals, enhancing the fingering process during the splashing event. Fundamental features of material transport in the vicinity of the surface of jets (e.g. gas transfer across a sea surface) are related to the entrainment of surface fluid by the longitudinal vortices, and is thus also characterised by Fr_h.     

Investigation of the load-bearing capacity of suction caissons used for offshore wind turbines

This paper presents the results of three-dimensional finite element analyses of the suction bucket foundation used for offshore wind turbines. The behavior of the bucket and the response of soil supporting the bucket in dense and medium dense sandy soils subjected to static horizontal load are investigated. Field tests results and a centrifuge model test are used to validate the numerical model. Dimensionless horizontal load-displacement and overturning moment-rotation relationships are derived utilizing the Power law and Buckingham’s theorem. The results show good agreement between the numerical analysis results and the straight lines obtained from the Power law until a specific value of horizontal load and overturning moment. Regarding stress behavior of soil supporting the bucket, due to soil densification and bucket movement, maximum stresses are seen near the bucket tip at the right inside of the bucket. The major part of the applied load is transferred by the bucket skirt. Numerical analysis modeling results show that the bucket rotation and displacement are highly dependent on the bucket geometry and soil properties in addition to loading conditions. Normalized equations and figures for the ultimate horizontal load and overturning-moment capacities are presented and can be used for the preliminary design of the bucket foundations in sandy soils.