The scale effect on the failure mechanism and penetration resistance of caisson piling in clay

摘要

The influence of scale effect could be significant on the behavior of ring stiffened caisson penetrating into clay, which brings uncertainty when predicting the failure mechanism and penetration resistance. This paper presents numerical modeling results which examine the scale effect on the behavior of caisson during piling into clay, which can consider the plug effect of caisson installation that has significant effect on the behavior of caisson especially for the case with large L/D. Large deformation finite element analyses are employed in this study. Two numerical models are generated and validated with laboratory results from centrifuge tests. Numerical results demonstrate significant scale effect on the characteristics of caisson penetrating in clay, which is mainly influenced by the normalized soil strength. Two formulas, with considering scale effect, are proposed to predict the behavior of stiffened caisson during installation, which can provide engineering guidance for the design of installation for ring stiffened caissons.

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