Suction Bucket Response Under Seismic Liquefaction: Numerical Simulations versus Centrifuge Experiments

1. Home
2. Publications
3. Online Library
4. Suction Bucket Response Under Seismic Liquefaction: Numerical Simulations versus Centrifuge Experiments

Multi-bucket foundations are increasingly used to support offshore wind turbines (OWTs) due to their potential for high overturning resistance. However, the seismic response of such foundation systems in granular soils is not sufficiently studied in the literature, while there is no relevant design methodology of these systems against earthquake-induced liquefaction that may appear in such soils. Therefore, a calibrated 3D numerical methodology is presented in this paper for simulating the response of suction buckets as OWT foundations under seismic action and liquefaction. It employs 3D dynamic fully-coupled finite difference analyses with FLAC3D and the use of a state-of-the-art constitutive model (LiPa) for simulating the liquefiable soil response. The methodology is hereby employed for simulating the reference test from the series of dynamic centrifuge tests of Yu et al., 2014, which refers to a single suction bucket foundation supporting an OWT in a thin saturated sand layer. Given that the imposed shaking is very intense in these tests, the saturated sand layer liquefies, thus leading the single bucket to seismic settlements and residual rotation. The analyses simulate accurately the measured response of the bucket and the foundation soil with a set of LiPa model constants that was calibrated beforehand on the basis of element tests from the literature. This good agreement serves as a validation for the proposed methodology and implies that it constitutes a reliable tool for the performance-based-design of such foundation systems against seismic liquefaction.

5th International Symposium on Frontiers in Offshore Geotechnics (ISFOG2025)

11 - Suction installed foundations and anchors