White Etal 2005 ISFOG Mudmats
White Etal 2005 ISFOG Mudmats
White Etal 2005 ISFOG Mudmats
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D.J. White
Cambridge University Engineering Department, UK
A.J. Maconochie
Technip Offshore UK Ltd, Aberdeen, UK
ABSTRACT: The optimal design of a mudmat foundation for a seabed structure maximizes the ratio of ver-
tical compression to pullout capacity, which can be achieved by adding perforations. This paper describes an
investigation led by Technip in which solid and perforated mudmats were installed into soft clay. The installa-
tion load of the solid mudmats matched the theoretical bearing capacity. Perforations reduced the installation
load in proportion to the perforated area. In heterogeneous conditions, a further change in installation load arose
due to the shallower failure mechanism. Peak pullout resistance was governed by separation beneath the mud-
mat, and depended on the width of the grillage elements formed by the perforation.
1 INTRODUCTION
459
Mudmat foundations are therefore required to sup- this paper, su0 is defined as the strength at the founda-
port primarily downward-acting loads and have min- tion level, (depth h below mudline) so su0 increases
imal pullout capacity. Skirts are rarely used, unless with penetration.
unusually high horizontal loads are present. The influence of vertical heterogeneity can be cap-
tured by defining N*c as a modified bearing capacity
factor to be applied to su0 (Equation 2). N*c therefore
1.2 Perforation exceeds the equivalent homogenous value due to the
One method of reducing the uplift capacity of a mud- added strength available at depth.
mat is to introduce perforations. Instead of a solid
cross-section, a perforated mudmat comprises a grill- (2)
age with steel plates covering some of the cells.
Perforations offer two further benefits. Firstly, the The modified N*c is a function of the dimensionless
weight of the structure (and cost of material) is reduced, vertical strength gradient kD/su0 (for circles of diam-
allowing easier handling by a smaller crane. Secondly, eter D) or kB/su0 (for strips of breadth B). Exact plas-
the structure is less influenced by hydrodynamic forces ticity solutions for N*c for strip and circular
during deployment, since waves and currents can pass foundations have been derived using numerical meth-
through the perforations. ods by Davis & Booker (1973) and Salençon & Matar
(1982) and have been replicated for this paper using
freely-available method of characteristics software
1.3 Vertical bearing capacity of mudmats (Martin 2003). The effect of dimensionless strength
1.3.1 Effect of shape heterogeneity on bearing capacity can be illustrated
Design methods for the vertical bearing capacity of a either by the variation in N*c or instead by the change
perforated mudmat on clay are based on fundamental in dimensionless effective depth, zeff /D (or zeff /B) for
solutions derived using classical plasticity. The short which the unmodified bearing capacity factor Nc
term bearing capacity of clay, qmax, (minus the sub- applies (Equation 1). Prior to the availability of mod-
merged weight of overburden at the embedded foun- ern plasticity solutions for N*c, it was more common
dation depth, h) is the undrained shear strength, su, to consider this effective depth at which an ‘operative’
times a bearing capacity factor Nc: soil strength is chosen, and applied to Equation 1.
Figure 2 shows the increase in N*c with heterogen-
(1) eity, and corresponding decrease in effective depth.
The shallower failure mechanism below a circular
The exact bearing capacity factor, Nc, of an infinite foundation leads to a 50% shallower effective depth.
strip footing on Tresca soil is the Prandtl solution Skempton (1951) suggested that if the strength did
(Nc,strip 2 5.14) whilst for a rough circle the not vary by more than 50% of the average value
exact solution is Nc,circle 6.05 (Cox et al. 1961). No within a depth of 2/3B, the mean value over this range
exact solution exists for a square footing, but finite
element limit analyses bracket the true solution between
5.52 and 6.22 (Salgado et al. 2004). Conventional
finite element analysis indicates a value of Nc,square/
Nc,strip 1.15 (Gourvenec et al. 2005).
In light of these recent solutions, the shape factor
Nc,square/Nc,strip 1.2 (Skempton 1951) applied by
many design codes to the Prandtl solution, leading to
Nc,square 6.17, is slightly optimistic. Instead, these
newer results for square foundations indicate that the
change in geometry from an infinite strip to a square
could increase the bearing capacity by only 15%.
460
should be used in Equation 1. For linear vertical het- conducted in a large-scale test tank (plan dimensions
erogeneity, this approach corresponds to zeff /D 0.33 4500 1250 mm) located at the Schofield Centre,
for kD/su0 3. The lower bound solutions in Figure 2 Cambridge University Engineering Department. The
indicate that this assumption is appropriate for strip tank is equipped with bottom drainage and the lower
foundations in slightly heterogeneous conditions, but is 600 mm is filled with a gravel layer. Two layers of
at least two times deeper than is appropriate for circular geotextile were placed above the gravel to prevent
foundations, and presumably also for square mudmats. escape of the test soil.
461
Table 2. Test programme and mudmat dimensions.
1 125 – – 0
2 125 25 50 0.04
3 125 50 37.5 0.16
4 125 75 25 0.36
5 125 25 25 0.16
6 125 25 12.5 0.36
7 125 12.5 15 0.16
8 125 18.75 10 0.36
9 100 – – 0
10 75 – – 0
11* 125 84.6 66.3 0.36
12 125 – – 0
13 125 – – 0
14 200 – – 0
15* 200 135.4 106.1 0.36 Figure 4. Results of test bed characterisation.
462
Figure 6. Measured and predicted Nc for solid mudmats.
463
Figure 8. Peak pullout Nc.
Figure 7. Peak Nc vs. perforation ratio, R. mudmats did not reach the steady value evident in
Figure 5 prior to the crack opening and separation
being observed.
R 0, as this is the average for the solid 125 mm The peak Nc during pullout is calculated using an
mudmats. effective depth of 0.18B* (as previously for installa-
The linear variation in peak Nc shown on Figure 7b tion, Fig. 7b), but with the opposite sign used for the
leads to a mean over-prediction of the perforated peak overburden correction in Equation 1. This modification
Nc values by 8%. This discrepancy could be attributed arises because the overburden acts to reduce, rather
to the 10–15% difference between Nc,square and Nc,strip, than enhance, the pullout resistance. These peak val-
since a strip failure mechanism is more appropriate ues of Nc are lower than recorded during installation
along a grillage of a highly perforated mudmat. (Fig. 8a). The lower Nc cannot be wholly due to the
However, this transition to a strip mechanism would remoulded (instead of peak) strength acting during
also cause an increase in effective depth (Fig. 2). An extraction; this effect would reduce the resistance by
additional modification to Nc would be difficult to a constant fraction, and Nc would remain proportional
verify due to the heterogeneous test bed. to R. Instead, peak pullout Nc vs. R shows wide scat-
ter and no trend (Fig. 8a).
The peak pullout resistance is limited by separ-
4.3 Extraction of mudmats ation. Therefore, it is appropriate to plot peak pullout
The uplift resistance of each mudmat showed a sudden Nc against the effective strip width, B*, which is
reduction from the maximum value to almost zero, equal to twice the distance that a crack must open in
coincident with separation of the clay from beneath order for full separation to occur (Fig. 8b). This com-
the mudmat (Fig. 5). The matching profiles of bearing parison shows less scatter than Figure 8a. The mud-
pressure and pore pressure during pullout show that the mats with thinner grillage sections (i.e. lower B*)
uplift resistance is sustained by negative pore pressure offer reduced pullout resistance.
at the mudmat-soil interface until a water-filled crack In prototype conditions, consolidation during the
opens beneath the mudmat, eliminating the excess life of the structure could increase the strength of the
pore pressure. The pullout resistance of the perforated underlying soil, raising the uplift resistance.
464
5 CONCLUSIONS REFERENCES
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