Suction bucket performance in sand under vertical cyclic loading: Numerical modelling using SANISAND-MS

This study assesses the performance of a memory surface constitutive model (SANISAND-MS) in capturing vertical cyclic loading on a suction bucket foundation in sand. The model has been calibrated against drained cyclic triaxial responses and validated against corresponding centrifuge experiments on suction buckets. The model was found to satisfactorily capture the effects of increasing accumulated strain with increasing mean stress level and reducing density. The performance of the model was further investigated through a parametric study on suction buckets at different mean stress levels, densities and loading sequences. The insights gained from investigating the strain and stress responses, along with the movement of the memory surface, reveal that the model can satisfactorily capture the strain accumulation and ratcheting effects under different load histories.