Analysis Of The Bearing Capacity Of The Bucket Foundation In Soft Clays Under The Horizontal Cyclic Load

The bucket foundation is gradually replacing the traditional pile foundation in some areas, because of its simple structure, convenient installation in the sea, the repeated use and low cost. It has a wide range of applications. But there is still not a good method to evaluate the cyclic bearing capacity of the bucket foundation in soft clays. Test results were simulated using pseudo static elasto-plastic FEM and the horizontal cyclic bearing capacity of the bucket foundation in soft clays under the vertical loads and horizontal cyclic loads were studied in this paper.Firstly, the cyclic properties of soft clays were studied under the UU condition. Unconsolidated undrained cyclic triaxial tests were conducted under the same confining pressure. The variation was determined between the cyclic strength and the static stress under the same number of cycles. And the proper relationship to describe the characteristics of the cyclic accumulative strains was established.Secondly, combining the pseudo static elasto-plastic FEM and the model of cyclic strength, the horizontal cyclic bearing capacity of the bucket foundation under the horizontal cyclic loads were calculated. And the relationship between the horizontal cyclic bearing capacity and the static loads was studied when the cyclic failure times are 500 and 1000. And the vertical damage of the bucket foundation was given in different static load and the corresponding level of horizontal cyclic load. Then the test results were simulated. The compare of the tests and calculations by FEM verified that the method was feasible.Finally, by the theory of creep, the accumulative deformations of bucket foundations under horizontal cyclic loads were calculated using the method in which the cyclic accumulative deformation was equaled to the creep. Deformations produced by different horizontal cyclic loads under the same static loads and at the same numbers of cycles were picked up from the results of calculations. Then the horizontal cyclic bearing capacity was evaluated according to a certain failure criterion. Then the results of calculations were compared with those of the corresponding model tests.