Influence of Low-Permeability Layers on the Installation and the Response to Vertical Cyclic Loading of Suction Caissons

Offshore wind is a key part of the change toward renewable energy sources. farm developments are moving to sites that characterized by increased water depths and layered soil profiles, e.g., in North Sea. Suction caisson–based jacked structures expected be increasingly used support turbines at such sites. Experience suction caissons serving as foundations for offshore limited. The mechanisms governing caisson installation soils poorly understood no published data in-service performance jackets supporting exists. This gap addressed here through series centrifuge tests investigating response soils—sand over clay sand—subjected vertical cyclic loading into tension. results reveal enabling complex load transfer under loading. layer plays role: sand clay, it encapsulates plug, which leads predominantly undrained behavior. In sand, uplift plug critical both facilitating These findings provide confidence tension soils.