Numerical Analysis of Bearing Capacity of Suction Caisson

This paper presents a finite element modeling for determination of bearing capacity of a suction caisson subjected to vertical uplift loading. The approach looks at the uplift capacity of the caisson considering a non-uniform cross sectional area to account for a geometry optimization. For this purpose, the numerical simulation is first verified using available data from other research work especially centrifuge data. Parametric studies are then performed to investigate the role of influencing factors including taper angel. The results show that the bearing capacity of caisson increases with increasing the taper angle.