NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF VERTICAL BEARING CAPACITY OF SUCTION BUCKETS WITH STRAIN SOFTENING MODEL FOR DENSE SAND

摘要

In order to investigate the vertical bearing capacity of suction buckets on dense sand,a series of numerical simulations are performed with a strain softening model.The strain softening model is applied into the FEM software ABAQUS by the using of an explicit sub-stepping scheme with automatic error control.The model is first used to simulate the triaxial drained compression test,and the comparisons between simulations and tests results show that this model could predict the strain softening behavior of the dense sand.And then,this model is applied to predict the vertical bearing capacity of suctions buckets with different length-to-diameter ratio (L/D).Difference between associated and nonassociated flow rules are considered in the simulations.Influence of length-to-diameter ratio (L/D) on the loaddeformation behaviors,such as the friction interaction between sand and the bucket wall,the vertical resistance at the bucket tip and the bearing capacity of the soil plug inside the bucket,are investigated.The simulations results show that the strain softening model could prediction the relationship between vertical bearing capacity and settlement.