Behaviour of Submerged Skirted Foundations under Combined Vertical, Moment and Horizontal Loading

Key Researchers: Prof. Guy Houlsby, Prof. Mark Randolph (UWA), Dr. Sasha Puzrin (Technion, Israel) and Dr Chris Martin
Researchers: Dr Byron Byrne, Dr Mark Cassidy, Andrew House and George Vlahos
This work is sponsored by the Australian Research Council under the IREX scheme. 

International Experts Combine to Design Buckets

Skirted foundations, also referred to as 'bucket' foundations due to their appearance as upturned buckets, have captured the imagination of offshore engineers because of the simplicity with which they can be installed, merely by sucking out the water, hence forcing the skirts to embed into the seabed sediments. They have been used widely for offshore oil and gas production as foundations for fixed offshore platforms, or to anchor floating structures, and also as the base for offshore wind generators or weather stations.

From an engineering perspective, however, considerable uncertainty surrounds the load-carrying capacity of these foundations, particularly under the harsh environmental loading imposed by hurricane-force winds and 20 to 30 m high waves. This uncertainty is about to be addressed, by an international team spanning Oxford University, Israel Institute of Technology at Haifa and the University of Western Australia. A three year collaboration involving exchange of researchers and pooling of complementary experimental resources and theoretical skills, is set to establish new solutions for the ultimate capacity of skirted foundations and a robust design framework for estimating the response to storm-induced cyclic loading.

Links: Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems, University of Western Australia