Eulerian finite element analysis of excess pore pressure generated by spudcan installation into soft clay

Abstract

This paper reports an analytical exploration into excess pore pressures generated during offshore spudcan installations. The analysis was conducted using ABAQUS/Explicit for three effective-stress constitutive models coded using the user-defined material subroutine VUMAT. The results demonstrate the feasibility of conducting effective-stress finite element analysis of undrained spudcan penetration using Eulerian approach. They also show that the computed penetration resistance and pore pressure response depend significantly on the undrained shear strength computed by the different models. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.