Holding Capacity of Shallow Suction Caisson Anchor based on Finite Element Analysis

Foundations of offshore structures have been actively studied to provide design guides for oil platforms in the past. Presently, this asset from oil industry now finds its application in the design of the foundations for offshore wind turbines. The analytical solutions for the hold capacity of suction anchors have been developed based on limit equilibrium and limit analysis theorems and often compared to the results of novel approaches such as finite element (FE) analysis. However, some solutions show discrepancy with the FE analysis results under specific conditions, say under certain value of the ratio of length to diameter. The main scope of this paper is to analyze the failure envelope of suction caisson anchors, especially with an aspect ratio of 2 based on FE analysis. The results will provide a basis to enhance the existing plasticity solutions for anchor hold capacity. The effect of soil disturbance and location of optimal loading point are also investigated.