Introduction of Suction Pile Technology

Suction Pile 공법 개요 및 그 적용

The interest in suction piles by the oil industry was risen in the middle of 1980's. Recently, suction piles have been applied increasingly in offshore engineering due to its low cost, simplicity, efficiency, and reliability. Suction piles have normally been used as anchors of floating structures and foundations of marine structures in deep-water locations. Suction piles have several technical advantages over conventional piles and anchors; fast and easy installation at any depth of water, extremely large resistance due to its huge size, and easy retrieval by applying a positive suction pressure inside the pile, etc. Daewoo E&C Co., Ltd. has conducted a series of field suction pile installation and loading tests inside the Okpo harbor located in Geojedo and the Onsan harbor in Ulsan, Korea, during the summer of 2001, which may provide additional validation of the analytical solutions previously developed by the US Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center. This is a brief description of the general mechanisms of suction pile installation and loading capacity based on the study conducted by the US Navy and Daewoo E&C Co., Ltd.