A Coupled Eulerian- Lagrangian Approach for Spudcan Penetration Analysis

摘要

Numerical simulation of continuous spudcan penetration was often hampered by severe mesh distortion arising from very large soil deformation, complex contact condition and nonlinear soil behaviour. As the analysis proceeds in a conventional Lagrangian based finite element analysis, severe mesh distortion eventually leads to progressive deterioration in solution accuracy and the subsequent imminent termination. This paper presents the application of a novel Eulerian based finite element technique to simulate the continuous penetration of a jack-up spudcan foundation into the seabed. In the Eulerian approach, the material is allowed to move independent of the element nodal points and therefore termination of computing execution due to severe mesh distortion does not occur despite the material undergoing large deformation. The applicability of the Eulerian finite element model is demonstrated through comparison with published experimental data for different soil profiles. The results from Eulerian finite element simulations are found to agree well with experimental observations.