Finite Element Modeling of the Tensile Capacity of Suction Caissons in Cohesionless Soil

When suction caissons are used as foundations for jacket structures, the caissons are exposed to significantvertical loads. If the self-weight of the structure is relatively low, a large horizontal load may lead to tension onthe foundation on the incoming side. For steady loads, such as the wind load during production, the soil responsewill be drained. This paper presents the results from a series of finite element analysis (FEA) on suction caissonsin cohesionless soil. The analyses are performed on suction caissons with different dimensions and different soilconditions. For normalization, dimensional analyses of the calculated results are performed to create dimensionlessgroups. The dimensionless groups are used to establish a relation between the normalized tensilecapacity and the interface strength. This relation is used to establish two formulations of the drained tensilecapacity for suction caissons in cohesionless soils. One for associated plasticity and one for non-associatedplasticity with the dilatation angle equal zero.