A Centrifuge Study of Suction Pile Installation in Sand

This paper describes a centrifuge model test program of suction pile installation in sand. The purpose of the centrifuge tests was to establish relationships between the applied suction pressure inside the pile and the resulting pile penetration to validate an analytical solution for large-sized suction piles. This paper describes the details of the centrifuge model tests, including the experimental setup, instrumentation, and test results. Eight model suction pile installation tests were conducted under conditions that directly simulate the nonlinear behavior of the sandy seafloor soil. Test parameters included the amount of applied surcharge, pile diameter, and initial pile penetration. Results indicate that the suction is very effective in penetrating largesized suction piles in sand. However, the applied suction is limited due to the possible soil instability within the pile.