Abstract

Lateral Capacity of Skirt Foundation on Loose Submerged Sand

Author(s): R. Manoj Kannan and S. Chezhiyan

Skirted foundation consist of a plate resting on the bed level and a peripheral skirt attached to the plate which is hollow inside so that the hollow space was accumulated with soil plug inside it. Skirt foundations was found to be one of the alternative solution to pile foundations for offshore structures such as wind turbines, oil platforms etc. Offshore wind turbines are largely subjected to lateral loads mainly due to wind and current. This study had been made to find out the lateral load carrying capacity of the circular skirted footings with different L/D ratios on loose submerged sand. The load carrying capacity of skirt foundation was studied on the model bucket foundation, which was scaled down from actual prototype. The tests have been conducted for poorly graded sand. The load vs displacement behaviour of foundation was observed from the tests.