Finite Element Analysis of Laterally Loaded Suction Caisson in Anisotropic Clay

1 .IntroductionSuctioncaissons have been widely usedfor offshore oil exploration duetothe advantages of econo-my and simple installation over traditional piles (Huanget al .,2003) .For tensionleg platforms andspar platforms in deep ocean,suction caissons …

Finite Element Analysis of Laterally Loaded Suction Caisson in Anisotropic Clay

Naturally deposited clay is usually characterized by strength anisotropy; however, the effect of anisotropy on the capacity of a suction caisson was seldom investigated. The conventional Hill yield surface includes undrained strengths in triaxial shear, simple shear and pressuremeter shear simultaneously but it can not specify differences in respect to the mode of loading for a given shearing mode. A new technique of updating strength is integrated into incremental finite element (FE) calculation to consider the mode of loading, which is applied to the study of variation of capacity with the aspect ratio of suction caissons in anisotropic clay. Compared with the upper bound limit analysis, FE simulation is capable of offering the lateral capacity of short caissons. In the normal range of anisotropic strength properties, the Mises yield surface with simple shear strength predicts the horizontal capacity of which the error is less than 10% for rough caissons and 15% for smooth caissons. It is also found that the friction of caisson affects the capacity significantly.