Advanced Laboratory Setup for Testing Offshore Foundations

This paper describes a test setup for testing small-scale offshore foundations under realistic conditions of high pore-water pressure and high impact loads. The actuator, used for loading has enough capacity to apply sufficient force and displacement to achieve both drained and undrained failure modes for small-scale offshore foundations. Results from trial tests on two small-scale bucket foundations, subjected to transient or cyclic loading, are presented. Tests showed that cavitation limits the undrained bearing capacity. Hence, a high pore-water pressure is important for simulating offshore conditions.