Failure surface considering the ultimate tensile and compressive capacities of suction caissons in clay

One of the important issues for suction caissons is to demonstrate the effect of the contact between the base and the soil on the ultimate capacities of vertical (V), lateral (H), and moment (M) loads. It has not yet been analytically revealed how the ultimate capacities of suction caissons are dependent on the contact conditions of tension and no-tension interfaces under combined loads including vertical compressive and tensile loads. In this article, an analytical investigation into the effect of interfaces on the ultimate vertical, lateral, and moment capacities of suction caissons in nonhomogeneous clay is made using a traditional bearing capacity theory with tension and no-tension interfaces. For failure envelopes of suction caissons in clay subjected to lateral and moment loads under vertical compressive and tensile loads, the results predicted by the present method are compared with those obtained from the finite element analysis. In order to compare failure envelopes obtained from a tension interface and those obtained from a no-tension interface under general loading, failure envelopes in the H-V, M-V, and H-M planes and in H-M-V space for suction caissons in clay are investigated.