Suction buckets (or caissons) have traditionally been used for oil and gas related projects. Over the last few years, the use of suction buckets increased significantly in the offshore renewables sector. For example, 31 suction bucket jackets were installed for wind farms in the North Sea in 2018. To reduce costs, there is a need for a design optimization for this type of foundations. Experimental studies have been carried out to investigate the prediction of the installation pressure, mostly focusing on single- or two-layer soil configurations. Lab or field test experiments are sometimes extremely expensive, and they mostly focus on limited configurations, such as the dimensions of the structure and the soil type conditions. Experimental tests on complex scenarios remain very challenging. Nowadays, numerical methods demonstrate important capabilities in simulating large deformation problems such as the installation of objects. Using this technique, several experiments can be virtually reproduced with significantly less costs. This paper shows the simulation of the installation of a suction bucket using the Material Point Method (MPM). Ideal homogeneous purely cohesive and frictional soils have been investigated, and the effect of water flow has also been studied. MPM results are in good agreement with the analytical predictions, justifying the use of MPM for more complex problems.
M. Martinelli, E. A. Alderlieste, V. Galavi and H. J. Luger
Keywords: suction, installation, underpressure, offshore, material point method, MPM
Publisher: DFI