Centrifuge study of capacity of a skirted foundation under eccentric transient and sustained uplift

Abstract

Environmental and buoyancy forces impart overturning moments and potentially direct uplift to offshore foundation systems. Shallow skirted foundations are an attractive design solution, as negative excess pore pressures developed within the soil plug provide temporary uplift resistance. This paper presents the results of beam centrifuge tests on a shallow skirted foundation in a lightly overconsolidated clay under eccentric transient and sustained uplift. When compared with the response under concentric uplift, the experimental results show a reduction in capacity and an increase in the rate of degradation of capacity under sustained loading.