The undrained bearing capacity of a spudcan foundation under combined loading in soft clay

Mobile jack-up drilling rigs are typically supported by individual, large diameter spudcan foundations. Before deployment, the suitability of a jack-up to a location must be shown in a site-specific assessment under loads associated with a 50-year return period storm, which ultimately need to be resisted by the foundations. The capacity of the spudcans under combined vertical, horizontal and moment loading is therefore integral to the overall site-specific assessment of the jack-up.In soft clays, spudcans can penetrate deeply into the seabed, sometimes up to several footing diameters, with soil flowing around the downward penetrating footing, sealing the cavity. Although this is generally believed to provide some additional bearing capacity to the footing, no detailed study or formal guidance is available to date. This study, therefore, investigates the influence of soil back-flow on the failure mechanisms and quantifies the effect on the capacity of a spudcan under general loading through finite element analyses. A closed-form analytical expression is developed that describes the capacity envelope under combined loading, applicable to embedment depths ranging from shallow to deep.