TY - GEN

T1 - Derivation of adapted soil springs for the buckling analysis of suction caissons during installation

AU - Ramos, Juan Pablo

AU - Widerspan, Viktor

AU - Heinrich, Dariya

AU - Böhm, Manuela

N1 - Funding Information: The work presented in this contribution was carried out within the ProBucket Project. The authors kindly acknowledge the financial support provided by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action (FKZ 03EE3033). The support provided by the project partners is also gratefully acknowledged.

PY - 2023/9/22

Y1 - 2023/9/22

N2 - The buckling capacity of suction caissons during installation must be investigated, as these are sensitive to buckling due to their thin-walled structure. A geometric material nonlinear analysis with imperfections, in which the soil is modeled using continuum elements, provides the most realistic results. Nonetheless, the modeling of the nonlinear material behavior of the soil as well as the consideration of multiple imperfection shapes are associated with a high modeling and computational effort. To avoid this, springs are often used to model the soil. However, the common approaches for determining lateral soil springs were developed experimentally for flexible piles and not short caissons. In this work finite element models are created to derive adapted soil springs for large scale tests on suction caissons. The comparison of the implemented soil springs with the soil springs from the guidelines shows that an adjustment of the commonly used springs is necessary. A factor that allows the springs to approximate the behavior of the continuum elements is formulated. Additional models that analyze the supporting effect of the soil on the buckling capacity of the suction caisson using continuum finite elements and soil springs foundations are developed. These models also compare the effect of the embedment depth and the soil bearing capacity.

AB - The buckling capacity of suction caissons during installation must be investigated, as these are sensitive to buckling due to their thin-walled structure. A geometric material nonlinear analysis with imperfections, in which the soil is modeled using continuum elements, provides the most realistic results. Nonetheless, the modeling of the nonlinear material behavior of the soil as well as the consideration of multiple imperfection shapes are associated with a high modeling and computational effort. To avoid this, springs are often used to model the soil. However, the common approaches for determining lateral soil springs were developed experimentally for flexible piles and not short caissons. In this work finite element models are created to derive adapted soil springs for large scale tests on suction caissons. The comparison of the implemented soil springs with the soil springs from the guidelines shows that an adjustment of the commonly used springs is necessary. A factor that allows the springs to approximate the behavior of the continuum elements is formulated. Additional models that analyze the supporting effect of the soil on the buckling capacity of the suction caisson using continuum finite elements and soil springs foundations are developed. These models also compare the effect of the embedment depth and the soil bearing capacity.

KW - Buckling

KW - FEM

KW - Offshore Wind Energy

KW - Offshore Wind Foundations

KW - Stress analysis

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85174069778&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1115/OMAE2023-103701

DO - 10.1115/OMAE2023-103701

M3 - Conference contribution

AN - SCOPUS:85174069778

T3 - Proceedings of the International Conference on Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering - OMAE

BT - Offshore Technology

PB - American Society of Mechanical Engineers(ASME)

T2 - ASME 2023 42nd International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, OMAE 2023

Y2 - 11 June 2023 through 16 June 2023

ER -