Bearing capacity of skirted suction caissons subjected to lateral loading in clay

Developing offshore wind energy becomes a hot issue in the energy field of the world. The skirted suction caisson (SSC) was proposed to increase the lateral control capacity and reduce the lateral deflection of the caisson, which is particularly suitable as the foundation of offshore wind power plant. The 3-D numerical simulations were carried out to study the lateral bearing capacity of the modified suction caisson in clay. The influence of dimension of the skirted structure on the lateral bearing capacity, soil deformation and rotation point were investigated. The results showed that the lateral bearing capacity of the SSC is greatly improved compared to the regular suction caisson (RSC), and its bearing capacity increases with the increasing of dimension of the skirted structure. When the ultimate load is reached, the influence range for the surrounding soil of SSC is larger than that of the RSC, and along the loading direction and in front of the foundation, the range of ground uplift is lower than that of the RSC. The rotation center of the SSC moves up with the increasing of the skirt depth.