A finite element approach for predicting the full resistance profile of a spudcan deeply penetrating in dense sand overlying clay

This paper presents a finite element approach to calculate the full resistance profile of a spudcan deeply penetrating in dense sand overlying clay, in which a potential for an installing spudcan to experience a sudden uncontrolled punch-through failure exists. A modified Mohr-Coulomb model characterized by incorporating a four-phase variation of the mobilized strength and dilation parameters with an equivalent accumulated plastic strain is developed and tested for the overlying dense silica sand. An extended Tresca model is used for the strain softening of the underlying clay. A series of large deformation finite-element (LDFE) analyses are carried out, varying the strength and dilation parameters as well as the spudcan geometries. A fairly good performance of the present approach is verified by validating against groups of centrifuge tests data, allowing the numerical study to be extended parametrically. The four-phase variation of the mobilized strength and dilation parameters involved in the progressive failure of the upper dense sand is parametrically studied and extended to cover the range of sand relative densities that are of practical interest. Additionally, comparisons with the typical existing LDFE analyses using both simple and sophisticated constitutive models are carried out. It shows that the present approach performs fairly well to calculate the full resistance profile of a spudcan deeply penetration in both thin and thick dense sand overlying clay, especially the peak and post-peak resistance, within around 5% of the corresponding centrifuge tests results.