• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.39 no.12
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• pp.61-73
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• 2023

Suction buckets are feasible options for offshore foundations to support subsea structures in deep water, enabling suction-induced installation by pumps. Recently, hybrid suction bucket foundations that combine single or multiple suction buckets with a mat foundation have been considered. The foundations effectively increase the load capacity while reducing construction costs. However, there is still insufficient experimental validation of hybrid suction bucket foundations regarding their bearing capacity. Furthermore, research on the horizontal load capacity under low vertical and moment loads is inadequate. In this study, we investigate the feasibility of using a hybrid suction bucket foundation for subsea installations in clay. We considered two types of hybrid suction bucket foundations: a circular mat with a single suction bucket and a square mat with multiple buckets. Centrifuge tests were performed to understand the hybrid suction bucket foundation characteristics under horizontal loads and their corresponding bearing capacity. Particularly, we verified the effect of the mat foundation and bucket embedment depth on the horizontal bearing mechanism and capacities. Results confirmed that the hybrid suction bucket foundation outperforms the single suction bucket.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.69-78
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• 2016

A suction bucket foundation has been considered to be a potential foundation type for offshore wind turbines. A suction bucket foundation is usually installed in soft soil, so the accumulated displacement of the foundation may occur under long-term cyclic loads. In this study, a series of 1-g model tests were performed to analyze the accumulated rotation of suction bucket foundations under long-term cyclic horizontal loads. The dry model ground was prepared to have two different soil densities by air-pluviation method. The model tests were performed varying the embedment depth of the suction bucket, the soil density, and the amplitude of cyclic load. A one-way horizontal cyclic load was applied over $10^4$ cycles. Test results showed that the accumulated rotation of the suction bucket foundation increased with the increase in the number of cycles and load magnitudes. Based on the model test results, a new equation was proposed to evaluate the accumulated rotation of the suction bucket foundations in dry sandy ground under long-term cyclic horizontal loads.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.161-168
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• 2018

This paper presents the design procedure of the suction bucket used to support a subsea manifold. The soil-suction bucket interaction numerical analysis technique was verified by comparing the present results with a reference data. In order to simulate the soil-bucket interaction analyses of a subsea manifold structure, various material data such as undrained shear strength, elastic modulus, and poisson ratio of soft clay in Gulf of Mexico were collected from reference survey. We proposed vertical and horizontal design loads based on system weights and current-induced drag forces. Under the assumption that diameter of the suction bucket was 3.0 m considering real dimension of the subsea manifold frame structures, aspect ratio was decided to be 3.0 based on reference survey. The ultimate bearing load components were determined using tangent intersection method. It was proved that the two design load components were less than ultimate bearing loads.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.34 no.11
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• pp.21-31
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• 2018

Bucket foundations are widely used in offshore areas due to their various benefits such as easy and fast installations. A bucket is installed using self-weight and the hydraulic pressure difference across the lid generated by pumping out water from inside the bucket. When buckets are installed in high permeable soil such as sands, upward seepage flow occurs around the bucket tip and interior, leading to a decrease in the effective stress in the soil inside the buckets. This process reduces the penetration resistance of buckets. However, the soil inside and outside the bucket can be disturbed due to the upward seepage flow and this can change the soil properties around the bucket. Moreover, upward seepage flow can create significant soil plug heave, thereby hindering the penetration of the bucket to the target depth. Despite of these problems, soil disturbance and soil plug heave created by suction installation are not well understood. This study aims to investigate the behavior of soil during suction installation. To comprehend the phenomena of soil plug heave during installation, a series of small-scale model tests were conducted with different testing conditions. From a series of tests, the effects of tip thickness of bucket, penetration rate, and self-weight were identified. Finally, soil properties inside the bucket after installation were approximated from the measured soil plug heave.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.75-83
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• 2014

Suction bucket foundation is installed with the differential pressure created by pumping water out of bucket. Bucket foundation has usually been utilized in mooring anchor for offshore platform or floating oil and gas production facilities in the open sea. After suction bucket foundation successfully was applied as the foundation for offshore wind turbines in Europe, it recently attracts much attention in Korea, too. To estimate the penetration resistance of the suction bucket foundation is one of the important matters that should be considered during its installation. This study carried out a series of model tests to investigate the penetration resistance of suction bucket foundation. And the mobilized soil strength factor was reviewed through comparing the experimental results by two installation ways (e.g., push-in-load and suction) and the results calculated by the conventional equation.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.5-12
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• 2021

Owing to economically efficient and easy installation, bucket foundation is a promising solution for offshore wind turbines. This paper aims at finding the behavior of suction caissons and soil surrounding the foundation by using three-dimensional finite element analysis. Under various loading conditions, a wide range of foundation geometries installed in dense and medium dense sandy soil was considered to evaluate ultimate horizontal load and overturning moment capacity. The results show that the rotation and displacement of the bucket due to monotonic loading are largely dependent on the foundation geometry, soil density and load eccentricity. Normalized diagrams and equations for the ultimate horizontal load and overturning moment capacities are presented that are useful tool for the preliminary design of such foundation type.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.23-32
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• 2013

In order to evaluate the bearing capacity behaviour of a monopod suction bucket foundation for an offshore wind tower at the western sea of Korea, a centrifuge load test and numerical analyses were performed. The monopod bucket foundation was designed to be installed in a silty sand layer. The model soil was prepared to simulate a target site by using soil samples having similar properties and controlling relative density. In-flight miniature cone penetration test and bender element array were used to confirm that the model soil had represented the target site conditions. The load - rotation curve of the centrifuge load test was analysed. A series of numerical analyses were performed to validate the experimental conditions. Self-weight of the model, distance to the boundary and elastic modulus of the soil layer were varied to study their effects on the load - rotation curves.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.25-35
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• 2015

Penetration resistance of bucket foundations with skirt wall in the silty sand of the western coast of Korea was analyzed by centrifuge modelling. The penetration resistance is induced when the bucket foundations are jacked into the soil without suction, and is directly related to the self-weight penetration depth. The procedure by Houlsby and Byrne (2005), which takes into account the effect of stress increase by frictional resistance of skirt wall, was utilized to generate the penetration resistance similar to the experimental results. This paper describes the methods by which major parameters such as lateral earth pressure coefficient and friction angle between the skirt wall and the soil are evaluated. The effect of changes in these parameters on the predictions is analyzed. Also, observed soil behaviour during jacking penetration is investigated.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.1908-1914
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• 2012

As the turbine capacity and the water depth of wind farms are increasing, the construction cost of substructures and foundations for offshore wind turbines is expected to increase. Since the installation of suction bucket foundation is achieved by both self-weight and applied suction, the construction generally does not require heavy equipment for penetration. This study provides an economic analysis on the tripod which have the bucket foundations and compares that the jacket foundation at 50m water depth on sand layer or soft layer. As the strength of the soil and the number of the foundation is increasing, the construction cost of the tripod with the bucket foundations is more economically feasible than the jacket foundation.