Numerical Analysis of Steep Wave-Induced Seabed Response and Liquefaction Around Gravity-Based Offshore Foundations

Gravity-based offshore foundations generally consist of a bottom slab and one or more cylindrical shafts on top of it. The geometry of the structure can strongly affect the flow pattern, dynamic wave pressure and further soil response and the liquefaction risk in the vicinity of the foundation. In this work, gravity-based foundations with bottom slabs of cylindrical shape and hexagonal prismatic shape are investigated. An integrated wave-structure-seabed interaction model applied in this work is developed in Open-FOAM, incorporating a nonlinear wave solver, a linear elastic structure solver and an anisotropic Biot’s poroelastic soil solver consisting of consolidation and liquefaction modules. Soil consolidation behavior in the presence of the foundations is investigated. It is found that the corners of the hexagonal foundation cause stress concentration in the soil. Therefore the initial effective stress around the hexagon corners is relatively high. Then, fully nonlinear waves modelled by fifth-order stream functions are simulated. Wave-induced pressure distributions and momentary liquefaction depths around the foundations are predicted.