Abstract
Suction bucket foundations are being used for a wide variety of offshore foundations. However, accurate modeling of its installation remains challenging due to the complexity of soil transportation, in which the soil is typically treated as a continuum and its discrete behavior is neglected. In this paper, the bucket foundation installation in the sand under different installation methods (i.e., jacked and suction-assisted installation) is investigated from a microscopic perspective (i.e., particle scale) based on the three-dimensional coupled computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and coarse-grained discrete element method (CGDEM). It is found that the CFD-CGDEM method can successfully simulate the bucket installation process. Suction-assisted installation results in a significant reduction in the inner skirt friction resistance and end resistance, while the outer skirt friction resistance shows only a minor decrease. During suction-assisted installation, soil loosening inside the bucket contributes more significantly to the soil plug formation compared to the inflow of external soil. Compared to jacked installation, the seepage induces a significant reduction in the effective stress of soil within the interior and below the bucket tip, while it increases the effective stress outside slightly under suction-assisted installation. The work provides an alternative research approach for the suction bucket installation.
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