Topic
Spudcan
About: Spudcan is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 446 publications have been published within this topic receiving 4924 citations.
Papers published on a yearly basis
Papers
TL;DR: In this paper, the bearing capacity of shallow circular foundations on undrained clay is investigated, and the results have widespread application, particularly in the offshore industry, where the footing is not placed at the ground surface and it is important to take into account the depth of embedment.
Abstract: INTRODUCTION The bearing capacity of circular foundations on undrained clay is of fundamental importance in many geotechnical problems. In particular there are a number of designs of offshore foundations where the foundation can be treated approximately as a large circular footing, for instance some gravity bases, the spudcan foundations of jack-up units, and the more recently developed caisson foundations. In most cases the footing is not placed at the ground surface, and it is important to take into account the depth of embedment. Furthermore, the base of a spudcan is generally not flat, but approximates a shallow cone. For foundations on soft clays, the effect of the increase of strength of the soil with depth needs to be taken into account, and this is particularly important for large foundations. The purpose of this note is to present calculations of bearing capacity factors for shallow circular foundations, accounting for embedment, cone angle, rate of increase of strength with depth, and surface roughness of the foundation. The results have widespread application, particularly in the offshore industry. The soil is assumed to be rigid-plastic, with yield determined by the Tresca condition with an undrained strength su. The method of characteristics is used for the bearing capacity calculation, as described by Shield (1955), Eason & Shield (1960), Houlsby (1982) and Houlsby & Wroth (1982a) for application to undrained axisymmetric problems. Some previous results have been published for this problem using similar numerical techniques (e.g. Houlsby & Wroth, 1982b; Salencon & Matar, 1982; Houlsby & Wroth, 1983; Tani & Craig, 1995; Martin, 2001), but the study presented here involves a much more comprehensive coverage of the parameters. Where comparisons can be made with the previous solutions, the factors differ by up to about 0·5%, which gives some indication of the level of accuracy attainable with this numerical technique. Exceptionally, the rough footing results given by Tani & Craig (1995) are higher by up to about 5%, but this may be due to a problem with their numerical integration procedures (see Martin & Randolph, 2001).
200 citations
Dissertation•
1 Jan 1994
TL;DR: In this article, the behavior of circular footings on cohesive soil under conditions of combined vertical, horizontal and moment (V, H, M ) loading is the primary concern of this paper.
Abstract: In addition to vertical loads, the foundations of offshore structures are subjected to horizontal loads and overturning moments as a result of environmental (wind and wave) loading. The behaviour of circular footings on cohesive soil under conditions of combined vertical, horizontal and moment ( V, H, M ) loading is the primary concern of this thesis. A programme of physical model tests, involving combined loading of circular footings on reconstituted Speswhite kaolin, is reported. The shape of footing used is typical of the "spudcan" foundations of independent leg jack-up drilling platforms. Previous experience with combined loading of footings on sand has revealed that the observed load:displacement behaviour is best understood, and theoretically modelled, in terms of work hardening plasticity theory. The present tests on clay confirm this, and the results are interpreted to give empirical expressions for (i) the combined load yield surface in V:H:M space, and (ii) a suitable flow rule to allow prediction of the corresponding footing displacements ( z, h, θ ) during yielding. Extension to a complete plasticity model is achieved using theoretical stiffness factors to define elastic behaviour, and theoretical lower bound bearing capacity factors (derived specifically for this work) to define the size of the yield surface as a function of vertical penetration. The predictive capabilities of the numerical model are evaluated by retrospective simulation of various footing tests. Finally some plane frame structural analyses of a representative jack-up unit are described; some of these analyses incorporate the plasticity-based numerical model of spudcan footing behaviour under combined loads.
190 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a half-spudcan model was used to visualise the soil flow mechanisms around the spudcan during penetration, and the formation of a cavity was revealed by both centrifuge model tests and finite element analysis.
Abstract: Centrifuge model tests and finite element (FE) analysis have been conducted to study the penetration of spudcan foundations in uniform clay with nominally constant strength with depth. In particular, the transition between shallow penetration, with soil heaving to the ground surface, and deep penetration, with a localised flow-round mechanism, has been investigated. This transition governs the onset of back-flow and hence the depth of soil lying on the installed spudcan, which in turn influences the bearing capacity and also the potential for suction to develop and hence the uplift capacity and moment resistance of the foundation. The maximum cavity depth above the spudcan prior to any back-flow is therefore a critical issue for spudcan assessment in clay. In the centrifuge model tests, a half-spudcan model penetrating against a transparent window has been used to visualise the soil flow mechanisms around the spudcan during penetration. The formation of a cavity above the spudcan is revealed by both centr...
159 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a large deformation finite element (LDFE) approach was used to quantify the effect of strain-softening, rate-dependent, soft clays quantifying the effects relative to results for ideal soil.
Abstract: In practice, natural soils exhibit strain-rate dependency and also soften as they are sheared and remolded. Traditional design approaches, however, have been developed based on idealized rate-independent perfectly plastic soil. This paper presents results for deep penetration of spudcan foundations in strain-softening, rate-dependent, soft clays quantifying the effects relative to results for ideal soil. The analysis was carried out using a large deformation finite-element (LDFE) approach, modifying the simple elastic-perfectly plastic Tresca soil model to allow strain softening, and incorporate strain-rate dependency of the shear strength. Parametric analyses were undertaken varying the strain-rate parameter, the sensitivity and ductility of the soil, the normalized penetration rate, and the soil strength nonhomogeneity. Overall, penetration resistance for rate-dependent, strain-softening clays lay below that for ideal soil. Increased brittleness of the soil led to marked reduction in penetration resistance, only partly compensated by strain-rate dependency. Key results have been presented in the form of design charts, fitted by simple expressions to estimate the limiting cavity depth above the advancing spudcan and the limiting bearing capacity factor at depth.
138 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the bearing capacity of spudcan foundations of offshore jack-up rigs in sand overlying normally consolidated clay was investigated using the coupled Eulerian Lagrangian.
Abstract: Numerical studies were carried out to investigate the bearing capacity of spudcan foundations of offshore jack-up rigs in sand overlying normally consolidated clay by using the coupled Eulerian–Lag...
115 citations
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Performance Metrics
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2022 | 1 |
| 2021 | 24 |
| 2020 | 33 |
| 2019 | 31 |
| 2018 | 28 |
| 2017 | 25 |