TUTORIAL MANUAL

8 CYCLIC VERTICAL CAPACITY AND STIFFNESS OF CIRCULAR UNDERWATER

FOOTING

This tutorial illustrates how to calculate the vertical bearing capacity and vertical stiffness
of a circular stiff underwater footing (e.g. one of the footings of a jacket structure)
exposed to cyclic loading during a storm. The storm is idealised by a distribution of load
parcels with different magnitude. The cyclic accumulation tool is used to obtain soil
parameters for the UDCAM-S model. The example considers a circular concrete footing
with a radius of 11 m, placed on an over-consolidated clay layer.
The procedure for establishing non-linear stress-strain relationships and calculating
load-displacement curves of a foundation under a cyclic vertical load component is
presented. The analysis of the circular footing is performed with a 2D axisymmetric
model. The soil profile consists of clay with an overconsolidation ratio, OCR, of 4,
submerged unit weight of 10 kN/m3 and an earth pressure coefficient, K0 , of 1.The
(static) undrained shear strength from anisotropically consolidated triaxial compression
tests has a constant value with a depth of suC = 130 kPa. The maximum shear modulus,
Gmax , of the clay is 67275 kPa. The cyclic behaviour of the soil is based on contour
diagrams for Drammen clay (Andersen, Kleven & Heien, 1988) assuming that the
behaviour is representative of the actual clay. The soil properties and footing geometry
are shown in Figure 8.1.

1m

D = 22 m

OCR = 4 γ ' = 10 kPa

S uc = 130 kPa w = 52 %
G max = 67275 kPa Ip = 27 %

Figure 8.1 Properties of the soil and footing

Objectives:
• Obtain the UDCAM-S model input parameters by running the cyclic accumulation
procedure, determining the stress-strain curves and optimising the material model
parameters.
• Calculate the total cyclic vertical bearing capacity.
• Calculate the vertical stiffness accounting for cyclic loading for both the total and the
cyclic component.

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8.1 INPUT

To create the geometry model, follow these steps:

8.1.1 GENERAL SETTINGS

1. Start the Input program and select Start a new project from the Quick select dialog
box.
2. In the Project tab sheet of the Project properties window, enter an appropriate title.
3. In the Model tab sheet make sure that
• Model is set to Axisymmetry and that
• Elements is set to 15-Noded.
4. Define the limits for the soil contour as
• xmin = 0.0 and xmax = 40.0
• ymin = −30.0 and ymax = 0.

8.1.2 DEFINITION OF SOIL STRATIGRAPHY

The sub-soil layers are defined using a borehole.
Create a borehole at x = 0. The Modify soil layers window pops up.
• Create a single soil layer with top level at 0.0 m and bottom level at -30.0m as shown
in Figure 8.2.
• For simplicity, water is not taken into account in this example. The groundwater table
is therefore set below the bottom of the model, and the soil weight is based on the
effective (underwater) weight.
In the borehole column specify a value of -50,00 for Head.

Figure 8.2 Soil layer

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8.1.3 DEFINITION OF MATERIALS

Three material data sets need to be created; two for the clay layer (Clay - total load and
Clay - cyclic load) and one for the concrete foundation.
Open the Material sets window.

Material: Clay - total load

• Create a new soil material data set: Choose Soil and interfaces as the Set type and
click the New button.
• On the General tab enter the values according to Table 8.1
Table 8.1 Material properties

Parameter Name Clay - total load Unit

Identification name Identification Clay - total load -
Material model Model UDCAM-S -
Type of material behaviour Type Undrained(C) -
Soil unit weight above phreatic level γunsat 10 kN/m3

• Proceed to the Parameters tab.

Instead of entering the model parameters in this tab sheet, we will run the cyclic
accumulation and optimisation tool. This procedure consists of three steps.
Click the Cyclic accumulation and optimisation tool button on the Parameters tab,
see Figure 8.3. A new window opens as shown in Figure 8.4.

Figure 8.3 Cyclic accumulation and optimisation tool

The three steps of the cyclic accumulation and optimisation procedure are
represented by the three tab sheets (Cyclic accumulation, Stress-strain curves and
Parameter optimisation) in the window.
1. Cyclic accumulation

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Figure 8.4 Cyclic accumulation tool window

The purpose of this step is to determine the equivalent number of undrained

cycles of the peak load, Neq , for a given soil contour diagram and load
distribution.
• Select an appropriate contour diagram from Select contour diagram data in
the Cyclic accumulation tab. In this case, select Drammen clay, OCR = 4.

Hint: For more information about contour diagrams, see Andersen (2015) and
Section 6.1.4.

• The load ratios and number of cycles from the storm composition can be
entered in the empty table. The storm composition is given in Table 8.2
(Jostad, Torgersrud, Engin & Hofstede, 2015) as the cyclic vertical load
normalized with respect to the maximum cyclic vertical load (Load ratio)
and the number of cycles (N cycles). It is here assumed that the cyclic
shear stress history in the soil is proportional to the maximum cyclic
vertical load of the footing. The table should be entered such that the
smallest load ratio is at the top and the highest load ratio is at the bottom.

Hint: The design storm is a load history that is transformed into parcels of constant
cyclic load. Each parcel corresponds to a number of cycles at a constant
amplitude determined from the time record of the load component. See
Section 6.1.4 of the Reference Manual for more information.

When you’ve entered the load parcels in the table, the Load ratio vs N
cycles graph will show a graphic representation of the data. For the data
given here and the logarithmic scale turned on, it will look like Figure 8.5.
• Click Calculate to calculate the equivalent number of cycles Neq . The
selected contour diagram is plotted together with the shear stress history
for a scaling factor where the soil fails (here defined at 15% shear strain) at

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Table 8.2 Composition of cyclic vertical load for a 6-hour design storm

# Load ratio N cycles

1 0.02 2371
2 0.11 2877
3 0.26 1079
4 0.40 163
5 0.51 64
6 0.62 25
7 0.75 10
8 0.89 3
9 1.0 1

Figure 8.5 Load ratio vs N cycles graph (logarithmic scale)

the last cycle (Figure 8.6) and the loci of end-points of the stress history for
different scaling factors. The calculated equivalent number of cycles
corresponds to the value on the x-axis at the last point of the locus of
end-points and is equal to 6.001.
2. Stress-strain curves
The purpose of this tab is to obtain non-linear stress-strain curves for a given
(calculated) Neq and given cyclic over average shear stress ratio (here taken
equal to the ratio between cyclic and average vertical load during the storm).
• Go to the Stress-strain curves tab.
• For the Neq determination, keep the default option From cyclic
accumulation. The calculated equivalent number of cycles is adopted from
the previous tab.
• Keep the Soil behaviour as Anisotropic, and the Scaling factor, DSS and
Scaling factor, TX as 1.

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Figure 8.6 Cyclic accumulation in PLAXIS

Hint: Cyclic strength can be scaled based on available soil specific cyclic strength.
» If the plasticity index and/or water content of the soil is different from
Drammen clay, the cyclic strength can be scaled by applying a scaling factor
different from 1 (see Andersen (2015) for details).

• Set the cyclic to average shear stress ratio for DSS, triaxial compression
and triaxial extension, describing the inclination of the stress path, to
appropriate values. In this example, the following input values are selected
to obtain strain compatibility at failure, i.e. the same cyclic and average
shear strain for the different stress paths at failure.
DSS
• cyclic to average ratio for DSS (∆τcyc /∆τ ) = 1.1,
TXC
• triaxial compression (∆τcyc /∆τ ) = 1.3 and
TXE
• extension (∆τcyc /∆τ ) = −6.3
• Select the load type of interest, Total load case is selected for this first
material. DSS and triaxial contour diagrams are plotted together with
stress paths described by the cyclic to average ratios Figure 8.7. Notice
that the shear stresses are normalised with respect to the static undrained
shear strength in compression. The extracted stress-strain curves are
plotted below the contour diagrams.
• Press Calculate to produce the corresponding normalised stress-strain
curves below the contour diagrams. See Figure 8.7 for the outcome.
3. Parameter optimisation
The purpose of the optimisation is to obtain a set of parameters for the
UDCAM-S model.
• Click the Parameter optimisation tab.
• Enter the parameters of the clay in the Static properties. Set suC ref to 130.0
and K0 determination to Manual and set K0 to 1.0.

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Figure 8.7 Stress-strain curves for total load

• Propose minimum and maximum values for the parameters listed below
Parameter ranges, see (Table 8.3) for values.

Hint: In the optimisation, set minimum and maximum values of τ C /SuC , τ DSS /SuC ,
and τ E /SuC close to the results from the strain interpolation if one wants to
keep these values. Calculate Gmax /τ C by dividing Gmax from soil properties
with results for (τ C /SuC ) ∗ SuC . Set the minimum and maximum values close
to this value.

• Click Calculate to obtain optimised parameters (Figure 8.8 and column

’Optimised value’ of Table 8.3).
After a few seconds, the optimal values are shown in the corresponding
column in the Parameter ranges table. Based on these values, the
optimised parameters are calculated and listed in the right-hand table.
The resulting stress-strain curves from test simulations with the UDCAM-S
model using the optimised parameters are shown together with the target
points from the contour diagrams.
• When the calculation has finished, save the application state of the Cyclic
accumulation and optimisation tool. The saved data will be used when
creating another material.

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Table 8.3 Parameter ranges and calculation results for optimisation (total load)

Parameter Name Min Max Optimised Unit

value value value
Ratio of the initial shear modulus to the Gmax /τ C 400.0 480.0 420.4 -
degraded shear strength at failure in triaxial
compression
Shear strain at failure in triaxial compression γfC 6.0 8.0 6.431 %
Shear strain at failure in triaxial extension γfE 5.0 8.0 7.873 %
Shear strain at failure in direct simple shear γfDSS 8.0 12.0 11.97 %
Ratio of the cyclic compression shear τ C /SuC 1.14 1.16 1.152 -
strength over the undrained static
compression shear strength
Ratio of the cyclic DSS shear strength τ DSS /SuC 0.89 0.91 0.9051 -
over the undrained static compression shear
strength
Ratio of the cyclic extension shear strength τ E /SuC 0.62 0.64 0.6208 -
over the undrained static compression shear
strength
Reference degraded shear strength at failure C
τref - - 149.7 -
in the triaxial compression test
Reference depth yref - - 0.000 m
Increase of degraded shear strength at C
τinc - - 0.000 kN/m2 /m
failure in the triaxial compression test with
depth
Ratio of the degraded shear strength at τ E /τ C - - 0.5389 -
failure in the triaxial extension test to the
degraded shear strength in the triaxial
compression test
Initial mobilisation of the shear strength with τ 0 /τ C - - 2.332E-3 -
respect to the degraded TXC shear strength
Ratio of the degraded shear strength at τ DSS /τ C - - 0.7858 -
failure in the direct simple shear test to
the degraded shear strength in the triaxial
compression test

• Buttons/Input/ButtonSaveFile.png To save the application state, press the

Save button at the top of the window. Save the state under the file name
optimised_total.json.
• Copy the optimised material parameters: Press the Copy parameters
button and go back to the Soil-UDCAM-S window describing the material.
Press the Paste material button, and the values in the Parameters tab are
replaced with the new values, see Figure 8.9.
• Go to the Initial tab and set K0 to 1 by setting K0 determination to Manual,
check K0,x = K0,z (default) and set K0,x to 1.
• Click OK to close the created material.
• Assign the Clay - total load material set to the soil layer in the borehole.

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Figure 8.8 Optimised parameters for total load

Figure 8.9 Copy parameters into Clay total material

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Material: Clay - cyclic load

Create a material for the second clay. Some information from the Clay - total load
material will be reused. The optimisation of the parameters has to be recalculated
though, based on other conditions.
• Copy the Clay - total load material.
• Enter "Clay - cyclic load" for the identification.
• Go to the Parameters tab. Like for the first material, also here the parameters will be
determined using the Cyclic accumulation and optimisation tool. Click the Cyclic
accumulation and optimisation tool button on the Parameters tab to open the tool.
Click the Open file and choose the application state optimised_total.json that
was saved after optimisation of the first material. All tabs will be filled with data.
The Cyclic accumulation tab is left as is.
• Go to the Stress-strain curves tab, set load type to Cyclic load.
• Press Calculate and let the calculation finish. The stress-strain curves are shown,
see Figure 8.10.
• Go to the Parameter optimisation tab.
Accept the notification about resetting the optimisation tab to get updated values.
• Make sure that suC ref is set to 130.0 and set K0 determination to Automatic.
• Modify the minimum and maximum values for the Parameter ranges, see Table 8.4
for values.
• Click Calculate to get the optimised parameters. The optimised parameters are
shown in Figure 8.11 and listed in the column ’Optimised value’ in Table 8.4.
• Save the application state under the file name optimised_cyclic.json.
• Copy the optimised material parameters: Press the Copy parameters button and go
back to the Soil-UDCAM-S window.
Press the Paste material button, and the values in the Parameters tab are replaced
with the new values.
• Click OK to close the created material.

Material: Concrete
Create a new material for the concrete foundation.
• Choose Soil and interfaces as the Set type and click the New button.
• Enter "Concrete footing" for the Identification and select Linear elastic as the
Material model.
• Set the Drainage type to Non-porous.
• Enter the properties of the layer:
• a unit weight of 24 kN/m3 ,
• Young’s modulus of 30E6 kN/m2 and

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Figure 8.10 Stress-strain curves for cyclic load

• a Poisson’s ratio of 0.1.

• Click OK to close the created material.
Click OK to close the Material sets window.

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Table 8.4 Parameter ranges and calculation results for optimisation (cyclic load)

Parameter Name Min Max Optimised Unit

value value value
Ratio of the initial shear modulus to the Gmax /τ C 700.0 800.0 703.2 -
degraded shear strength at failure in triaxial
compression
Shear strain at failure in triaxial compression γfC 1.0 3.0 2.966 %
Shear strain at failure in triaxial extension γfE 1.0 3.0 2.699 %
Shear strain at failure in direct simple shear γfDSS 1.0 3.0 2.946 %
Ratio of the cyclic compression shear τ C /SuC 0.66 0.67 0.6667 -
strength over the undrained static
compression shear strength
Ratio of the cyclic DSS shear strength τ DSS /SuC 0.47 0.49 0.4787 -
over the undrained static compression shear
strength
Ratio of the cyclic extension shear strength τ E /SuC 0.57 0.59 0.5790 -
over the undrained static compression shear
strength
Reference degraded shear strength at failure C
τref - - 86.67 -
in the triaxial compression test
Reference depth yref - - 0.000 m
Increase of degraded shear strength at C
τinc - - 0.000 kN/m2 /m
failure in the triaxial compression test with
depth
Ratio of the degraded shear strength at τ E /τ C - - 0.8684 -
failure in the triaxial extension test to the
degraded shear strength in the triaxial
compression test
Initial mobilisation of the shear strength with τ 0 /τ C - - 0.000 -
respect to the degraded TXC shear strength
Ratio of the degraded shear strength at τ DSS /τ C - - 0.7181 -
failure in the direct simple shear test to
the degraded shear strength in the triaxial
compression test

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Figure 8.11 Optimised parameters for cyclic load

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8.1.4 DEFINITION OF STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS

Define the concrete foundation.
• Click the Structures tab to proceed with the input of structural elements in the
Structures model.
• Select the Create soil polygon feature in the side toolbar and click on (0.0, 0.0),
(11.0, 0.0), (11.0, -1.0) and (0.0, -1.0).

NOTE: Do not yet assign the Concrete footing material to the polygon.

Define the interfaces.

• Create an interface to model the interaction of the foundation and the surrounding
soil. Extend the interface half a meter into the soil. Make sure the interface is at the
outer side of the footing (inside the soil). The interface is created in two parts.
• Click Create interface to create the upper part from (11.0, -1.0) to (11.0, 0.0), Figure
8.13.
• Click Create interface to create the lower part (between foundation and soil) from
(11.0, -1.5) to (11.0, -1.0), Figure 8.13.
• The upper part interface (between the foundation and the soil) is modeled with a
reduced strength of 30%.
Make a copy of the Clay - total load material and name it "Clay - total load -
interface". Reduce the interface strength by setting Rinter to 0.3 and assign this to
the upper part of the interface.
• For Phase 3 (Calculate vertical cyclic stiffness), another material with reduced
strength is needed. Make a copy of the Clay - cyclic load material and name it "‘Clay
- cyclic load - interface"’. Reduce the interface strength by setting Rinter to 0.3. Do
not assign this yet. It will be assigned when defining Phase 3.

Figure 8.12 Soil definition: Reduced strength material

• For the interface material extended into the soil, full soil strength is applied (Rinter =
1.0), as implicitly defined in the original clay material Clay - total load. Keep the
default setting Material mode: From adjacent soil.
Define a vertical load.
In order to calculate the cyclic vertical capacity and stiffness, a vertical load is applied at
the top of the foundation.

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• Define a distributed load by selecting Create line load and click (0.0, 0.0) and (11.0,
0.0).
• In the Selection explorer set the value of qy,start,ref to -1000 kN/m/m.

Figure 8.13 Geometry of the model

8.2 MESH GENERATION

• Proceed to the Mesh mode.

Generate the mesh. Use the default option for the Element distribution parameter
(Medium).
View the generated mesh. The resulting mesh is shown in Figure 8.14.
• Click on the Close tab to close the Output program.

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Figure 8.14 The generated mesh

8.3 CALCULATIONS

The calculation consists of three phases. In the Initial phase, the initial stress conditions
are generated by the K0 procedure, using the default values. In Phase 1 the footing is
activated by assigning the Concrete material to the corresponding polygon. The
interfaces are also activated. In Phase 2 the total cyclic vertical bearing capacity and
stiffness are calculated. In Phase 3 the cyclic vertical bearing capacity and stiffness are
computed.

Initial phase:
• Proceed to Staged construction mode.
• In the Phases explorer double-click the initial phase.
• Make sure that Calculation type is set to K0 procedure.
• Click OK to close the Phases window.

Phase 1: Footing and interface activation

Add a new phase.
• Phase 1 starts from the Initial phase.
• Activate the footing by assigning the Concrete footing material to the corresponding
polygon.
• Activate the interfaces as well.

Phase 2: Bearing capacity and stiffness

In Phase 2 the total cyclic vertical bearing capacity and stiffness are calculated. The
vertical bearing capacity is obtained by increasing the vertical load (stress) until failure.
The stiffness is calculated as the force divided by the displacement.

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Add a new phase.

• Phase 2 starts from Phase 1.
• In the Phases window go to the Deformation control parameters subtree and select
the Reset displacements to zero option and Reset small strain.
• Activate the line load.

Phase 3: Calculate vertical cyclic stiffness

In Phase 3, which also starts from Phase 1, the vertical cyclic stiffness is calculated by
activating the Clay - cyclic load material. The vertical bearing capacity is obtained by
increasing the vertical load (stress) until failure.
Add a new phase.
• In the Phases window set the Start from phase to Phase 1.
• Go to the Deformation control parameters subtree and select the Reset
displacements to zero option and Reset small strain. Close this window.
• Replace the soil material with the Clay - cyclic load.
• Assign the material Clay - cyclic load - interface material to the upper part of the
interface. The material mode of the lower part of the interface remains From
adjacent soil.
• Activate the line load.
The calculation definition is now complete. Before starting the calculation it is
recommended to select nodes or stress points for a later generation of load-displacement
curves or stress and strain diagrams. To do this, follow these steps:
Click the Select points for curves button in the side toolbar. The connectivity plot is
displayed in the Output program and the Select points window is activated.
• Select a node at the bottom of the footing (0.0, 0.0). Close the Select points window.
• Click on the Update tab to close the Output program and go back to the Input
program.
Calculate the project.

8.4 RESULTS

Total load cyclic vertical bearing capacity

Applied vertical stress (load): qy = - 1000 kN/m2
Failure at: qy = 719.1 kN/m2 (Figure 8.15)
Total vertical bearing capacity:
Vcap = qy ∗ Area = 719.1kN/m2 ∗ π ∗ (11m)2 = 273.35MN
For comparison, the static vertical bearing capacity (using the static undrained shear
strength) is found to be 228.1 MN. The reason for the larger vertical bearing capacity is
that the shear strengths increase due to the higher strain rate during wave loading,
compared to the value obtained from standard monotonic laboratory tests, and this effect

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Figure 8.15 Load displacement curve for total load)

is larger than the cyclic degradation during the storm.

Cyclic load cyclic vertical bearing capacity

Applied vertical stress (load): qy = - 1000 kN/m2
Failure at: qy = 458.1 kN/m2 (Figure 8.16)
Total vertical bearing capacity:
Vcap = qy ∗ Area = 458.1kN/m2 ∗ π ∗ (11m)2 = 174.14MN

Figure 8.16 Load displacement curve for cyclic load)

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Vertical stiffness
The vertical stiffness (accounting for cyclic loading) is calculated as ky = Fy /uy for both
the total and the cyclic component. The total vertical displacement includes accumulated
vertical displacements during the storm. Load versus stiffness is shown in Figure 8.17.

Figure 8.17 Vertical load versus stiffness for total and cyclic load components

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