Experimental evaluation of the pull-out behavior of suction caissons in saturated sand soil

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental and analytical investigation of the extraction behavior of suction caissons in saturated sand. The extraction of suction caissons was performed at four different pullout rates (i.e., 1 mm/s, 3 mm/s, 8 mm/s, and 23 mm/s), three different pullout angles (i.e., 0 degrees, 30 degrees, and 45 degrees), and two different suction caisson heights (i.e., 100 mm and 150 mm). Furthermore, a formula has been derived to calculate peak loads achieved from the experiments based on the pullout rate and angle. The results indicate that the extraction behavior of suction caissons is significantly impacted by the pullout rate and pullout angle. The pullout capacity of suction caissons with varying heights can be increased by both increasing the pullout rate or decreasing the pullout angle. When testing the 100 mm diameter caisson, it was discovered that by increasing the pull-out rate by 23 times while keeping the same conditions, a remarkable 115% increase in pull-out resistance was achieved. Additionally, a notable 83% increase in pullout resistance was observed by reducing the pullout angle from 45 degrees to 0 degrees under the same conditions. The findings from the equation presented in this study are compatible with the experimental results.