Numerical Analysis of Cyclic Bearing Capacity of Suction Bucket Foundation Based on Elasto-plastic FEM Ke Wu Ph.D., Lecturer, Research Center of Geotechnical and Structural Engineering; Shandong University; Jinan; Shandong 250061, P. R. China e-mail: wuke@sdu.edu.cn Mingyue Ma Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, Shandong 266510, P. R. China e-mail: shouhouxiaoke@163.com Rong Chen State Key Laboratory of Coastal and Offshore Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, and Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, School of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, P.R. China
			ABSTRACT

Suction bucket foundation is a new-type cost-effective offshore foundation, especially applicable for marginal field oil extraction, which is usually subjected to varied combined loads. However, studies on cyclic bearing capacity of suction bucket foundation are not sufficient to work out a reasonable analysis and computational procedure. Based on the concept of cyclic shear strength of soil, the paper applies Andersen analytical method on gravity foundation and combines cycle strength of soft soil and Mises yield criterion to determine bearing capacity of suction bucket foundation under cycle loading pattern. Therefore, a 3D quasi-static finite element method for assessing cyclic bearing capacity of offshore foundations or structures is numerically implemented in the framework of the general-purpose FEM software package ABAQUS. The numerical results computed by the proposed method indicate that cyclic bearing capacity has been reduced remarkably due to the cyclic softening effect induced by wave loading with respect to ultimate bearing capacity.

Keywords: bucket foundation; 3D finite element method; bearing capacity; varied combined loads; quasi-static analysis

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