Investigation into the influence of caisson installation process on its capacities in clay

Abstract

The installation process of caisson foundations causes the seabed soil heaving as well as the soil strength remoulding. This paper investigates these two effects by examining the installation process of caissons through large deformation finite element analysis. The short-term undrained bearing capacity of caisson foundations in clay after installation, which is a critical engineering scenario because the long term foundation capacity increases with time due to seabed soil consolidation, is subsequently evaluated. Expressed in terms of bearing capacity envelopes under combined loading, the short-term bearing capacity exhibits significant reduction affected by the two effects (i.e. soil heavi..