Numerical study on undrained multi-directional bearing capacity of hybrid subsea foundation

Abstract

The traditional foundation design does not consider the bearing capacity under multi-directional coupling load. However, the foundation is usually subjected to vertical (V), horizontal (H) and moment (M) loading simultaneously on the seabed. The present study examines the undrained multi-directional bearing capacity of hybrid subsea foundation in saturated soft clay using finite element analysis. The contribution of the mudmat and the suction bucket to the bearing capacity of the hybrid subsea foundation was evaluated. The results show that the suction bucket can effectively make up for the lack of horizontal anti-slip and anti-overturning ability of the mudmat. It has a significant contribution to the horizontal and moment bearing capacity. In addition, the failure envelope of bearing capacity in horizontal-moment (H-M), vertical-horizontal (V-H), and vertical-moment (V-M) load space is obtained by using prescribed displacement ratio loading method. Based on the simulation results, the expression of approximate envelope of foundation bearing capacity under combined load of horizontal and moment is proposed. The study also found that a certain value of vertical load can increase the horizontal and moment bearing capacity of the hybrid subsea foundation, while excessive vertical load will lead to a decrease in bearing capacity.