Study on the Bearing Characteristics of the Mobile Jet Reinforced Composite Suction Caisson Foundation

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Abstract
The suction caisson foundation has been extensively adopted for offshore wind turbine infrastructure owing to its adaptability to deep-water environments, cost-effectiveness, and convenient construction. However, such foundations suffer from relatively low horizontal and vertical bearing capacities when embedded in soft clay deposits. To address this limitation, this study proposes a novel mobile jet-reinforcement technique and the corresponding composite suction caisson configuration. Physical model tests are conducted to investigate the soil fracturing-erosion mechanism induced by jet injection and the bearing performance of the reinforced composite foundations. Test results reveal that the soil breaking depth increases with injection pressure and injector diameter, whereas the soil breaking width increases with jet angle. Larger breaking depth and width contribute to an expanded horizontal–vertical bearing capacity failure envelope. The ultimate bearing capacity of the composite caisson increases with greater soil breaking depth, and a larger number of circumferentially arranged jet pipes enables more uniform cement–soil cladding around the caisson body. Overall, the reinforced foundations achieve a bearing capacity 3.0–5.0 times that of conventional unreinforced suction caissons. Furthermore, a time-dependent hyperbolic model for soil breaking depth prediction and a bearing capacity failure envelope method are established for the reinforced composite suction caissons. The outcomes of this study can provide a reference for the engineering design of jet-reinforced suction caisson foundations in offshore areas with soft clay.
Funding Information
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (52578392)
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (51878160)
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (52378328)
  • China Communications Construction Group (2023-ZJKJ-01)
  • Research Fund for Advanced Ocean Institute of Southeast University (KP202404)
  • Research Fund for Advanced Ocean Institute of Southeast University (GP202403)

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