Investigations of suction caissons in dense sand

Offshore structures are used in a variety of applications ranging from the traditional oil and gas extraction facilities to emerging renewable energy concepts. These structures must be secured to the seabed in an efficient and cost effective manner. A novel approach is to use shallow inverted bucket...

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Main Authors: Byrne, B, B. W. Byrne
Other Authors: Houlsby, G
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2000
Subjects:
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author Byrne, B
B. W. Byrne
author2 Houlsby, G
author_facet Houlsby, G
Byrne, B
B. W. Byrne
author_sort Byrne, B
collection OXFORD
description Offshore structures are used in a variety of applications ranging from the traditional oil and gas extraction facilities to emerging renewable energy concepts. These structures must be secured to the seabed in an efficient and cost effective manner. A novel approach is to use shallow inverted buckets as foundations, installed by suction, in place of the more usual piles. These foundations lead to cost savings through reduction in materials and in time required for installation. It is necessary to determine how these foundations perform under typical offshore loading conditions so that design calculations may be developed. This thesis presents experimental data from a comprehensive series of investigations aimed at determining the important mechanisms to consider in the design of these shallow foundations for dense sand. Initially the long term loading behaviour (e.g. wind and current) was investigated by conducting three degree of freedom loading {V:M/2R:H} tests on a foundation embedded in dry sand. The results were interpreted through existing work-hardening plasticity theories. The analysis of the data has suggested a number of improved modelling features. Cyclic and transient tests, representing wave loading, were carried out on a foundation embedded in an oil saturated sand. The novel feature of the cyclic loading was that a 'pseudo-random' load history (based on the 'NewWave' theory) was used to represent realistic loading paths. Of particular interest was the tensile load capacity of the foundation. The results observed suggested that for tensile loading serviceability requirements rather than capacity may govern design. Under combined-load cyclic conditions the results indicated that conventional plasticity theory would not provide a sufficient description of response. A new theory, termed 'continuous hyperplasticity' was used, reproducing the results with impressive accuracy. Surprisingly, under the conditions investigated, loading rate was found to have a negligible effect on response.
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spelling oxford-uuid:64c30b2e-155c-4642-9115-5e2bf5667af52022-03-26T18:21:04ZInvestigations of suction caissons in dense sandThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:64c30b2e-155c-4642-9115-5e2bf5667af5Geotechnical engineeringOffshore foundationsEngineering & allied sciencesCivil engineeringEnglishOxford University Research Archive - Valet2000Byrne, BB. W. ByrneHoulsby, GOffshore structures are used in a variety of applications ranging from the traditional oil and gas extraction facilities to emerging renewable energy concepts. These structures must be secured to the seabed in an efficient and cost effective manner. A novel approach is to use shallow inverted buckets as foundations, installed by suction, in place of the more usual piles. These foundations lead to cost savings through reduction in materials and in time required for installation. It is necessary to determine how these foundations perform under typical offshore loading conditions so that design calculations may be developed. This thesis presents experimental data from a comprehensive series of investigations aimed at determining the important mechanisms to consider in the design of these shallow foundations for dense sand. Initially the long term loading behaviour (e.g. wind and current) was investigated by conducting three degree of freedom loading {V:M/2R:H} tests on a foundation embedded in dry sand. The results were interpreted through existing work-hardening plasticity theories. The analysis of the data has suggested a number of improved modelling features. Cyclic and transient tests, representing wave loading, were carried out on a foundation embedded in an oil saturated sand. The novel feature of the cyclic loading was that a 'pseudo-random' load history (based on the 'NewWave' theory) was used to represent realistic loading paths. Of particular interest was the tensile load capacity of the foundation. The results observed suggested that for tensile loading serviceability requirements rather than capacity may govern design. Under combined-load cyclic conditions the results indicated that conventional plasticity theory would not provide a sufficient description of response. A new theory, termed 'continuous hyperplasticity' was used, reproducing the results with impressive accuracy. Surprisingly, under the conditions investigated, loading rate was found to have a negligible effect on response.
spellingShingle Geotechnical engineering
Offshore foundations
Engineering & allied sciences
Civil engineering
Byrne, B
B. W. Byrne
Investigations of suction caissons in dense sand
title Investigations of suction caissons in dense sand
title_full Investigations of suction caissons in dense sand
title_fullStr Investigations of suction caissons in dense sand
title_full_unstemmed Investigations of suction caissons in dense sand
title_short Investigations of suction caissons in dense sand
title_sort investigations of suction caissons in dense sand
topic Geotechnical engineering
Offshore foundations
Engineering & allied sciences
Civil engineering
work_keys_str_mv AT byrneb investigationsofsuctioncaissonsindensesand
AT bwbyrne investigationsofsuctioncaissonsindensesand