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Analytical and experimental studies on installation of a suction caisson with tampered tip in clay |
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| Authors: | Shuwang Yan Jingjing Zhang Jian Chu Zhiliang Huo |
| Institution: | 1. State Key Laboratory of Hydraulic Engineering Simulation and Safety, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China;2. School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore;3. Tianjin Municipal Engineering Design &4. Research Institute, Reconnaissance and Survey Institute, Tianjin, China |
| Abstract: | Concrete suction caissons have been successfully used as breakwaters or seawalls in recent years. The relative large wall thickness-to-diameter ratio of a concrete caisson can lead to the formation of a full soil heave plug that may cause difficulties in the installation of concrete caisson in clay. One way to overcome this limitation is to use a tampered tip for the caisson wall. An analytical method is proposed in this article to calculate the minimum suction pressure required to penetrate a caisson and the maximum allowable suction pressure that can be applied to avoid too much soil heave plug during the installation of the suction caisson. Four model tests were conducted in normally consolidated clay to study the installation process of a concrete suction caisson with tampered tip and to verify the proposed analytical method. The height of the soil heave plug in the caisson with a tampered tip is observed to be about half of that in the caisson with a flat tip. |
| Keywords: | Soil heave plug suction caisson tampered tip |