BEARING CAPACITY OF THE PILE FOUNDATION UNDER SCOURING

The hydrodynamic environment of the Chenbei area is very complex. The joint action of wind, wave, current and other environmental factors will cause erosion or scouring around the drilling platform piles. The finite element analysis suggests that in the area with thick layer of silt overlying soft silty clay, if we choose the thick layer of silt as the pile shoes bearing layer, the scouring process should have significant effect on its bearing capacity. The pile shoe penetration depth and the thickness of effective bearing layer will reduce and the bearing capacity of the foundation will decrease, that will cause extra penetration and/or instability.