Seismic dynamics of offshore breakwater on liquefiable seabed foundation

Abstract

Offshore structures, such as composite breakwaters, are generally vulnerable to strong seismic wave propagating through loose or medium-dense seabed foundation. However, the seismically induced failure process of offshore structures is not well understood. In this study, seismic dynamics of a composite breakwater on liquefiable seabed foundation is investigated using a fully coupled numerical model FSSI-CAS 2D. The computation results show that the numerical model is capable of capturing a variety of nonlinear interaction phenomena between the composite breakwater and its seabed foundation. The numerical investigation demonstrates a three-stage failure process of the breakwater under seismic loading. In this process, the far-field seabed can become fully liquefied first, inducing excessive settlement of the structure, followed by significant lateral movement and tilting of the structure when the near-field soil progressively liquefies. The study demonstrates great promise of using advanced numerical analysis in geotechnical earthquake design of offshore structures.