Using the Elastic Vertical Vibration of a Rigid Caisson at Low Frequencies to Stabilize the Foundation of Coastal Engineering Structures

ABSTRACT He, R.; Zhang, J., and Chen, W., 2017. Using the elastic vertical vibration of a rigid caisson at low frequencies to stabilize the foundation of coastal engineering structures. A suction caisson or a bucket foundation offers a suitable and economic foundation type for many coastal structures (such as breakwaters and wind turbines). Because of the relative stiffness of a caisson foundation compared with the surrounding soil is high, the caisson is treated as a rigid cylindrical shell in this article. Seawater and seabed are treated as a coupled seawater–seabed half-space. In that way, the elastic, vertical vibration of a caisson can be modeled as the vertical vibration of a rigid shell embedded in a fully saturated, porous seabed. The solution to the problem is obtained with the ring-load Green's function and proper boundary conditions at the caisson–soil interface. With integral equations, the governing equations are transformed to Fredholm equations and are solved numerically. Numerical results ...