Hossain, M. S., Hu, Y., Randolph, M. F. & White, D. J. (2005). Géotechnique 55, No.
9, 679–690
Limiting cavity depth for spudcan foundations penetrating clay
M . S . H O S S A I N * , Y. H U † , M . F. R A N D O L P H * a n d D. J. W H I T E ‡
Centrifuge model tests and finite element (FE) analysis
have been conducted to study the penetration of spudcan
foundations in uniform clay with nominally constant
strength with depth. In particular, the transition between
shallow penetration, with soil heaving to the ground sur-
face, and deep penetration, with a localised flow-round
mechanism, has been investigated. This transition governs
the onset of back-flow and hence the depth of soil lying
on the installed spudcan, which in turn influences the
bearing capacity and also the potential for suction to
develop and hence the uplift capacity and moment resis-
tance of the foundation. The maximum cavity depth
above the spudcan prior to any back-flow is therefore a
critical issue for spudcan assessment in clay. In the
centrifuge model tests, a half-spudcan model penetrating
against a transparent window has been used to visualise
the soil flow mechanisms around the spudcan during
penetration. The formation of a cavity above the spudcan
is revealed by both centrifuge modelling and FE analysis.
It is found that there are three distinct penetration
mechanisms during spudcan installation: during initial
penetration, an open cavity is formed with vertical walls;
with further penetration, soil flows partially around the
spudcan into the cavity; during deep penetration, the
spudcan is fully embedded and the soil flow mechanism
is entirely localised. Over the wide range of normalised
soil strengths explored, the soil back-flow in the second
stage was shown to be due to a flow failure that was
triggered by the spudcan penetration and not by wall
failure, that is, the collapse of the vertical sides of the soil
cavity. This observation is supported by FE analysis. The
cavity depth due to flow failure is much shallower than
the criterion for wall failure that is incorporated in
current design guidelines. Instead, a new design chart
and expression is suggested with the normalised cavity
depth expressed as a function of the soil shear strength,
normalised by the effective unit weight of the soil and the
spudcan diameter.
KEYWORDS: clays; footings/foundations; model tests; numer-
ical modelling; offshore engineering; plasticity
INTRODUCTION
Jack-up rigs are widely used in offshore oil and gas explora-
tion and increasingly in temporary production and main-
tenance work. A typical modern jack-up unit comprises a
buoyant triangular platform supported by three independent
k-lattice legs, each resting on a large inverted conical footing
Manuscript received 10 August 2004; revised manuscript accepted
4 August 2005.
Discussion on this paper closes on 2 May 2006, for further details
see p. ii.
* Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems (COFS), School of Civil
and Resource Engineering, University of Western Australia.
† Department of Civil Engineering, Curtin University of Technol-
ogy, Western Australia.
‡ Schofield Centre, Department of Engineering, University of
Cambridge, UK.
679
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Des essais de modèle centrifuge et des analyses d’éléments
finis (FE) ont été effectués pour étudier la pénétration de
fondations ‘spudcan’ dans une argile uniforme avec une
force nominale correspondant à la profondeur. En particu-
lier, nous avons étudié la transition entre pénétration peu
profonde - avec soulèvement de sol à la surface -, et
pénétration profonde, avec un mécanisme flow-round loca-
lisé. Cette transition gouverne le début du refoulement et
de là, la profondeur du sol sur les spudcan installés, ce
qui, à terme, influence la capacité porteuse et le potentiel
de succion à se développer et donc la capacité de redresse-
ment et la résistance de moment de la fondation. La
profondeur de cavité maximum au-dessus des spudcan,
avant tout refoulement, est donc un point critique dans
l’évaluation des spudcan dans l’argile. Dans les essais de
modèle centrifuge, une moitié de spudcan pénétrant, de-
vant une fenêtre transparente, a été utilisée pour visualiser
le mécanisme d’affaissement du sol autour des spudcan
pendant la pénétration. La modélisation et les analyses FE
font apparaı̂tre la formation d’une cavité au-dessus des
spudcan. Il y a trois mécanismes de pénétration distincts
pendant l’installation des spudcan : pendant la pénétra-
tion initiale, une cavité ouverte se forme avec des murs
verticaux ; avec une pénétration plus poussée, le sol s’af-
faisse partiellement autour des spudcan dans la cavité ;
pendant une pénétration profonde, les spudcan sont com-
plètement enfouis et le mécanisme d’affaissement du sol
est entièrement localisé. Dans la vaste gamme de résis-
tances normalisées que nous avons étudiées, le refoulement
du sol au second stade était dû à un défaut d’écoulement
qui a été déclenché par la pénétration du spudcan et non
par la défaillance des murs, c’est-à-dire l’effondrement
des côtés verticaux de la cavité. Cette observation est
confirmée par les analyses FE. La profondeur de cavité
due à la défaillance de l’écoulement est bien moindre que
le critère de défaillance des murs qui est incorporé dans
les directives de conception actuelles. Nous suggérons un
nouveau tableau de design et d’expression où la profon-
deur de cavité normalisée serait exprimée comme fonction
de la résistance au cisaillement du sol, normalisée par le
poids unitaire effectif du sol et le diamètre des spudcan.
known as a spudcan (Young et al., 1984). These are gen-
erally circular or polygonal in plan, with a shallow conical
underside and a central spigot to give improved sliding
resistance, as illustrated schematically in Fig. 1. Spudcan
diameters in excess of 20 m have become common in post-
1980 designs.
Before the commencement of the jack-up operation, the
spudcans are preloaded through the k-lattice legs by pump-
ing seawater into compartments within the hull. The preload
causes the spudcans to penetrate into the seabed until the
load on the spudcan is equilibrated by the resistance of the
underlying soil. In soft soil, a spudcan may penetrate up to
2 or 3 diameters to reach equilibrium (Endley et al., 1981;
Craig & Higham, 1985). The purpose of preloading is to
penetrate the foundation sufficiently so that its resulting
bearing capacity exceeds that required during extreme storm
loading by an acceptable margin of safety. For a 50-year
 680 HOSSAIN, HU, RANDOLPH AND WHITE
k-lattice leg
Spudcan
Cavity
z H
d spudcan, its effect will be to reduce the net vertical bearing
Clay
D
Fig. 1. Schematic of embedded spudcan foundation showing
open cavity
design storm, a common practice is to preload the founda-
tion to twice the working vertical load. The ballast is then
discharged and the hull is raised further to provide an
adequate air-gap for subsequent operation.
The penetration resistance of the spudcan during preload-
ing, and its ability to withstand combined vertical, horizontal
and moment loading during an extreme storm event, will be
affected by the extent to which an open cavity forms above
the spudcan during penetration, or whether back-flow of soil
occurs over the top of the spudcan. Current design guide-
lines (SNAME, 1997) estimate the maximum depth of a
cavity from solutions for the stability of an open hole,
recommending conservative solutions by Meyerhof (1972),
based on Rankine pressures, for soil with uniform shear
strength, and upper-bound plasticity solutions of Britto &
Kusakabe (1982, 1983) for normally consolidated, or lightly
overconsolidated, soil where the shear strength increases
markedly with depth. The guidelines also ignore any poten-
tial benefits of transient suctions beneath the spudcan during
uplift or moment loading, owing to uncertainty in estimating
the onset and degree of back-flow.
The purpose of this paper is, through a combination of
experimental evidence from model tests and finite element
analyses, to demonstrate that the current design approach is
based on the wrong mechanism. Instead, the onset of back-
flow, and the consequent stable cavity depth above the
spudcan, is shown to occur at a transition in the failure
mechanism during penetration from one involving surface
heave to one involving rotational flow around the spudcan.
Assessment of back-flow
In soft normally consolidated clay, field inspection reports
by divers (Kee & Ims, 1984) and centrifuge observations
(Hossain et al., 2004b) have indicated a progressive infilling
of soil over the spudcan immediately after penetration of the
widest part of the spudcan below the mudline. Eventually,
the spudcan becomes fully embedded, with soil covering the
entire top surface with no significant cavity. This complete
back-flow negates the significant bearing capacity contribu-
tion from the overburden surcharge term, as this is balanced
by the weight of soil resting on the spudcan. However, when
a spudcan penetrates into overconsolidated clay with a sig-
nificant strength at the soil surface, model test observations
(Craig & Chua, 1990, 1991; Hossain et al., 2003, 2004a)
indicate that a cavity forms, of depth denoted H, although
with partial back-flow over the spudcan, such that H is lower
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than the embedded depth of the spudcan, denoted d. Soil
back-flow into the cavity can occur due to:
(a) plastic flow around the spudcan edge
(b) collapse of the vertical cavity walls into the hole, or
(c) a combination of these.
Whatever the mechanism of infill above the penetrating
capacity (i.e. the vertical load that can be applied via the
leg) or increase the penetration depth for a given vertical
load. Soil back-flow will allow transient suctions to develop
beneath the spudcan, giving rise to short-term capacity under
tensile vertical loading and increased moment capacity
(Martin & Houlsby, 2001). A further consequence of back-
flow is that significant passive resistance can be mobilised
by the embedded portion of a jack-up leg under combined
loading (Springman & Schofield, 1998). In addition, Kee &
Ims (1984) reported that, when the clay is firmer, ‘clean’
holes may form as the legs penetrate. Subsequent collapse of
soil over the spudcans would suddenly increase the load on
them, and could trigger rapid further penetration of the leg.
The degree of back-flow above a penetrating spudcan is
currently estimated by assessing the maximum (stable) depth
of open cavity above the installed spudcan. The stability of
a circular cavity has been investigated extensively by
Meyerhof (1972) using Rankine’s pressure theory, and by
Britto & Kusakabe (1982, 1983) using upper-bound plasti-
city analysis, and is expressed in terms of a stability number
(Ns ) defined as
ª9 H w
Ns ¼ (1)
su
where ª9 is the soil effective unit weight, Hw is the cavity
depth at which wall failure is initiated, and su is the uniform
undrained shear strength. The symbol ª9 is used throughout
the paper, corresponding to the effective unit weight, imply-
ing submerged conditions, which represent all practical
applications. However, in the analysis of centrifuge tests
where no free water was present, the total unit weight has
been used in place of the effective unit weight. This
approach is used because, in a cavity stability analysis (or in
the embedment term of the bearing capacity equation), the
self-weight term represents the difference in geostatic stress
at a given depth inside and outside the cavity (or above and
to the side of the foundation). In submerged conditions, this
difference in stress is ªz
ªw z ¼ ª9z. However, when no
free water is present (i.e. the cavity is dry but the soil is
saturated), this difference is simply ªz.
The limiting value of Ns is expressed as a function of the
spudcan penetration, normalised by its diameter. The above
relationship then gives the depth of cavity, Hw ¼ Ns su /ª9, at
which wall failure will occur, and hence an upper bound on
the depth of cavity that can stand open above a penetrating
spudcan. SNAME (1997) suggests that for non-homogeneous
clay the average undrained shear strength over the depth of
the cavity should be used, although a more accurate estimate
could be made by evaluating the upper bound numerically
following Britto & Kusakabe (1983). However, all the
above-mentioned stability factors have been developed based
on wall failure during axisymmetric excavations in clay. The
effect of foundation penetration on back-flow of soil into the
cavity was not considered.
Soil failure mechanisms around a penetrating spudcan can
be identified from numerical and analytical studies, although
it is more difficult to confirm these mechanisms experimen-
tally, owing to the non-transparency of the soil material.
Craig & Chua (1990, 1991) examined the penetration
mechanism from centrifuge model tests by inserting dry
spaghetti markers vertically in the soil across the centreline
 LIMITING CAVITY DEPTH FOR SPUDCAN FOUNDATIONS PENETRATING CLAY
of the foundation. After completion of the test, the soil
sample was bisected along the centreline, permitting the soil
movement to be observed through the deformed shapes of
the spaghetti. In soft clay with free water on top (su /ª9D 
0.25), when penetration was shallow (75% of spudcan
diameter), a cavity formed above the spudcan and is reported
to have remained open. The lateral extent of visible distor-
tion due to soil flow was confined to within 1.5 spudcan
diameters of the centreline. In the same soil, Craig & Chua
(1991) conducted a test with deeper penetration (more than
1.6 diameters). During deep penetration, the spaghetti defor-
mation showed that:
(a) a wedge of clay underneath the spudcan was pushed
down with the footing
(b) clay flowed plastically around the spudcan from below
to above
(c) the clay near the surface was thought to have collapsed
into the cavity.
However, the post-test sectioning revealed only the final
deformation pattern, so the balance between mechanisms (b)
and (c) could not be established as the evolution of the soil
flow pattern could not be determined.
Recently, an optical method based on particle image
velocimetry (PIV) and close-range photogrammetry has been
developed to obtain planar soil deformation measurements
by analysing digital images captured at discrete time inter-
vals (White et al., 2001a, 2001b, 2003; Hossain et al.,
2004a). PIV removes the need to insert spaghetti, draw lines
or add discrete target markers by tracking the soil texture
(i.e. spatial variation of brightness) through a series of
images. The use of this technique to observe the mechanism
of spudcan penetration is described in this paper.
This paper presents results showing the performance of
spudcan foundations during vertical penetration of uniform
clay with (nominally) constant strength with depth. The
cavity formation during initial penetration and soil back-flow
during further penetration have been investigated through
both centrifuge model tests and FE analysis. In the centri-
fuge testing, a full-spudcan model was used to investigate
the load–penetration response (not reported here), and a
half-spudcan model was used to reveal soil failure mechan-
isms. Both small-strain and large-deformation finite element
analyses were carried out to validate the experimental data,
leading to suggested values of bearing capacity factor Nc
and a relationship for the limiting cavity depth. This paper
focuses specifically on the conditions for the limiting stable
cavity, rather than on the spudcan penetration resistance,
which will be covered elsewhere.
EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS
The tests described here were performed in the drum
centrifuge at the University of Western Australia. This
centrifuge, installed in 1997, has a diameter of 1.2 m and a
maximum acceleration level of 485g. Further technical de-
tails can be found in Stewart et al. (1998). The outer
channel of the drum centrifuge has a vertical height of
300 mm and a radial depth of 200 mm. In this study pre-
consolidated soil specimens were placed into a strongbox
fitted within the channel. A special strongbox (258 mm 3
80 mm in plan and 160 mm deep) with a Plexiglas window
was built to allow the observation of soil flow. Images were
captured in-flight by a high-resolution (2272 3 1704 pixels)
digital still camera. The experimental arrangement is shown
in Fig. 2.
In this study, a half-spudcan made from duraluminium
was used. It was 60 mm in diameter with a 138 shallow
conical underside profile (included angle of 1548) and a 768
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681
protruding spigot. The dimensions of the model are shown
in Fig. 3. The spudcan size was chosen sufficiently large to
allow reasonably detailed images of the soil flow patterns,
while avoiding boundary effects from the strongbox. Thus
the strongbox width of 80 mm allowed a clear 50 mm (80%
of the diameter) between the spudcan and the wall of the
box: this region encompasses the failure zone, as may be
seen from finite element analyses presented later and the
experimental results of Craig & Chua (1990). The half-
spudcan was penetrated tight against the window of the
strongbox. In order to prevent soil ingress between the
spudcan and the window, an ‘O’ ring was fitted along
the periphery of the flat central face of the spudcan (Fig.
3(a)), and was compressed against the window during pene-
tration. The black anodised colour of the spudcan helped to
distinguish it from the white kaolin clay.
Tests were performed at 50g, 100g and 200g. Table 1 lists
the equivalent prototype sizes of the half-spudcan model
under different acceleration levels, following the scaling
relationships of Schofield (1980) whereby linear dimensions
are factored by the g-level. All depths in the paper are
presented as equivalent prototype depths, or normalised by
the spudcan diameter unless otherwise stated. Initial tests
were conducted without any free water on top of the soil so
that stability was governed by the saturated unit weight of
the clay. In order to broaden the range of ª9H/su , tests were
also carried out with 30 mm of free water above the clay
surface, so that the effective unit weight of the soil gov-
erned, as would be the case in practice.
A constant rate of penetration of 0.05 mm/s (at model
scale) was adopted, which was sufficiently slow to allow
frequent photographs to be taken, but fast enough to ensure
undrained conditions. The camera operated at 0.5 Hz, so that
images were obtained every 0.1 mm of (model) displace-
ment, providing excellent resolution of the failure mechan-
isms. Undrained conditions were satisfied according to the
criterion of Finnie (1993), with the non-dimensional velocity
index, vD/cv , exceeding 30, where v is the penetration rate,
D is the spudcan diameter, and cv is the consolidation
coefficient.
Preparation of clay specimen
The spudcan tests were performed on soft, heavily over-
consolidated specimens of kaolin clay (LL ¼ 61%; PI ¼
27%; Gs ¼ 2.6; cv ¼ 2 m2 /year; after Stewart, 1992). A
homogeneous and deaired slurry at a moisture content of
120% was prepared in a ribbon-blade mixer equipped with a
vacuum pump. One-dimensional consolidation was per-
formed in cylindrical containers of 394 mm inside diameter,
starting from a slurry height of about 600 mm. Geofabric
mats with drainage to atmospheric pressure were provided at
both ends of the sample. The consolidation pressure was
increased in four stages: 25 kPa, 50 kPa, 100 kPa and finally
150 kPa. Each increase in pressure was applied when the
rate of consolidation from the previous increment fell below
1 mm/h. During the final pressure increment, primary con-
solidation was considered achieved when the rate dropped to
0.1 mm/h. The sample was then unloaded in stages to
100 kPa, 50 kPa and finally to atmospheric pressure. The
total time required for consolidation was 212 weeks.
The resulting clay sample was about 280 mm deep, with a
moisture content of approximately 50%. Test specimens were
prepared by cutting the preconsolidated clay according to
the size of the strongbox, with six specimens obtained from
each consolidated sample. Black ‘flock’ powder was
sprinkled on the soil specimen side facing the window. This
was to add texture to the white kaolin to allow the images
to be used for particle image velocimetry (PIV) analysis.
 682 HOSSAIN, HU, RANDOLPH AND WHITE
Mini video camera
Ring channel
Ring channel height
Radial line: direction of g
Fig. 2. Drum centrifuge channel set-up
The ‘flock’ powder consists of coloured plastic flakes, and is
sold as a material for miniature landscape modelling.
Soil strength determination
Soil strength tests were performed using a T-bar pene-
trometer (Stewart & Randolph, 1991) of diameter 5 mm and
length 20 mm (model scale). These tests were conducted at
a rate of 1 mm/s, which was sufficiently fast to ensure
undrained behaviour in the kaolin (Randolph & Hope,
2004). In-flight strength assessments were performed imme-
diately after each spudcan test. For the soil specimens with-
out free water on top, uniform strength profiles were
obtained, whereas some softening of the soil (down to z/D 
0.7) occurred for the soil specimen with free water on top,
owing to water being sucked into the clay. Typical clay
strength profiles (assuming NTbar ¼ 10.5) are presented in
Fig. 4. Representative uniform strengths were chosen from
the measured profiles as indicated, for use in subsequent
analysis. The recorded soil strengths are listed in Table 2 for
three centrifuge tests corresponding to Cases I, III and V of
the parallel FE analyses. The kaolin has a sensitivity of
between 2 and 2.5, as judged from cyclic T-bar penetration
tests (Watson et al., 2000).
NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
Finite element analyses were performed using the AFENA
finite element package (Carter & Balaam, 1990) developed
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Cradle White-painted region
Digital still camera Viewing window
Lamp Strongbox
300 mm
Inner face of window
aligned with centrifuge radius
at the University of Sydney. Both small-strain and large-
deformation analyses were performed. H-adaptive mesh re-
finement cycles (Hu & Randolph, 1998b) were implemented
to ensure that an optimal mesh was generated and that the
discretisation errors were small. Large-deformation analyses
were conducted using RITSS (remeshing and interpolation
technique with small strain; Hu & Randolph, 1998a) to
simulate continuous penetration of the spudcan from the soil
surface. This approach falls within what are known as
arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) finite element methods
(Ghosh & Kikuchi, 1991), with frequent remeshing of the
entire domain, followed by interpolation of all field values
(such as stresses, or material properties) from the old mesh
to the new mesh. Six-noded triangular elements with three
internal Gauss points were used in all the FE analyses. To
ensure accuracy of the FE analyses, the minimum element
size (hmin ) within the region of interest immediately adjacent
to the spudcan, and displacement increment (
), were
selected using the following criteria (Hu & Randolph,
1998b)
hmin ¼ 0:005D (2)
 

E
¼ 0:03 (3)
D su
The geometry of the spudcan model is shown in Fig. 3(b).
In numerical simulations, all the dimensions were scaled
according to the prototype diameter in Table 1. The axisym-
metric soil domain was taken as 12D in diameter and 10D
 LIMITING CAVITY DEPTH FOR SPUDCAN FOUNDATIONS PENETRATING CLAY 683
su: kPa
0 5 10 15 20
0
Rubber ‘O’ ring 16·5 kPa

z/D 12 kPa
2 0·33

4 0·67

z: m
Half-spudcan 6 1·00
Full-spudcan

(a)

8 1·33
14·6 mm Without top free water
With top free water
1·67
10

Fig. 4. Typical soil strength profiles from T-bar tests (100g)

5·4 mm
1·5 mm
5·4 mm
13°
76° 8·6 mm

in depth to eliminate boundary effects. The soil was mod-

13·5 mm elled as an elasto-plastic material obeying a Tresca yield
criterion. All the analyses simulated undrained conditions
60 mm and adopted Poison’s ratio  ¼ 0.49 (sufficiently high to give
(b) minimal volumetric strains, while maintaining numerical
stability), friction and dilation angles  ¼ ł ¼ 0, and a
Fig. 3. Spudcan models: (a) centrifuge spudcan models; (b) half- uniform stiffness ratio E/su ¼ 500 (where E is the Young’s
spudcan dimensions modulus). The stiffness ratio is within the range commonly
adopted for soft clays, but the precise value has negligible
effect on the results presented. The soil–spudcan interface
was modelled as either fully smooth or fully rough, using
nodal joint elements (Herrmann, 1978).
Table 1. Equivalent prototype diameter of half-spudcan
Large-deformation analyses are computationally intensive,
typically taking several days to run on fast desktop compu-
G-level Prototype diameter, D ters. So, while such analyses were undertaken as a check,
simulating continuous spudcan penetration from the soil
1g 60 mm surface, the majority of the analyses were small-strain
50g 3m analyses with the spudcan ‘wished into place’ at a given
100g 6m depth d, with d/D varied in the range 0.025 to 3. A vertical-
200g 12 m walled cylindrical cavity was assumed to extend from the
soil surface down to a depth (H) above the spudcan (Fig. 1).

Table 2. Case studies in FE analysis

su : ª or ª9: D: Objectives
kPa kN/m3 m

Without water on top Case I 13 17 6 Modelling 100g centrifuge test data

Case II 16.5 17 6 Comparison with 100g centrifuge test data (higher
strength)
Case III 18 17 12 Modelling 200g centrifuge test data
Case IV 20 17 12 Comparison with 200g centrifuge test data (higher
strength)
With water on top Case V 12 7 6 Modelling 100g centrifuge test data (free-water case)
Case VI 18 7 12 For investigating the effect of soil shear strength, unit
Case VII 9 17 12 weight and spudcan size
Case VIII 18 17 6
Case IX 9 17 6

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 684 HOSSAIN, HU, RANDOLPH AND WHITE
FE analyses were performed for the nine cases listed in
Table 2. Cases I–IV were to compare with the centrifuge
test results without free water on top. Case V was to
compare with the test with free water on top. Cases VI –IX
were used to investigate the effect of soil unit weight, shear
strength and spudcan size.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Soil flow mechanism
Figure 5 illustrates the digital images captured during a
half-spudcan penetration in a 50g centrifuge test with no
free water on top of the soil specimen. The soil undrained
shear strength was uniform, with su ¼ 17.4 kPa. It can be
(a)
seen that during initial spudcan penetration (Fig. 5(a)), the
soil surface heaved, and a cavity formed above the spudcan.
With further penetration (Fig. 5(b)), soil began to flow back
gradually onto the top of the spudcan while the top part of
the initial cavity stayed open. When penetration became
deeper (Fig. 5(c)), soil back-flow continued to occur onto
the spudcan, while the initial cavity was unchanged. This
indicates that the soil back-flow was localised without affect-
ing the soil surface profile. The (average) depth of the stable
cavity, H, above the spudcan was measured from the image
at deep penetration, and the value of H was found to agree
closely with the depth at which back-flow was first observed
during the test.
Figure 6 shows the deep penetration of a half-spudcan
under 50g and 100g accelerations, but now with a free water
layer above the soil specimen. The measured soil strengths
increased gradually from a value of 3–5 kPa at the soil
surface, to a uniform strength below half the spudcan
diameter, with values of 15.6 kPa for the 50g test and
12 kPa for the 100g test (Fig. 4). By comparing Fig. 6(a)
with Fig. 5(c) it can be seen that, under the same accelera-
tion level (50g) and with similar soil strength, the stable
cavity depth has increased owing to the presence of the free (b)
water. The stability of the cavity is improved by being filled
with water, as the stability now depends on the soil effective
unit weight (ª9 ¼ 7 kN/m3 ) rather than its saturated unit
weight (ª ¼ 17 kN/m3 ). The footing size effect is illustrated
in Figs 6(a) and 6(b). The prototype spudcan size is doubled
in the 100g test compared with the 50g test. Therefore the
effective soil unit weight (ª9) and spudcan size (D) play
important roles in cavity formation and the stable cavity
depth.
The digital images with the coloured flock were then
analysed by PIV with subsequent photogrammetric correc-
tions (White et al., 2003). PIV operates by tracking the
texture (i.e. the spatial variation of brightness) of a mesh of
patches through a series of images. Fig. 7 shows the
corresponding displacement vectors using the images cap-
tured during the same test as presented in Fig. 5. Fig. 7(a)
displays the familiar bearing capacity failure mechanism for
a surface footing. For this surface footing, a significant
amount of soil underneath the spigot (0.8D) moves mainly
downwards with the spudcan, while the soil around the
spudcan edge shows a transitional movement from lateral to
vertically upwards: hence the soil surface adjacent to the
spudcan edge heaves. With further penetration (Fig. 7(b)), (c)
the region of downward moving soil beneath the spudcan
decreases to 0.5D, and more soil moves around the spudcan Fig. 5. Digital images of spudcan penetration in centrifuge test
edges. At this stage, the back-flow mechanism above the (50g, without top free water): (a) d/D 0.16; (b) d/D 0.77; (c)
d/D 1.15
spudcan extends to the soil surface. For deeper penetration
(Fig. 7(c)), flow around the spudcan is fully localised with-
out influencing the surface soil. The area where PIV analysis remoulded to such an extent as to obscure the coloured
proved possible has been identified by a line, indicating the flock, preventing PIV analysis. The region of downward
extent of the cavity, but also including (in Figs 7(b) and (c)) moving soil beneath the spudcan stays the same between
areas above the spudcan where the back-flow soil was Figs 5(b) and 5(c) (0.5D). The lateral extent of soil distor-

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 LIMITING CAVITY DEPTH FOR SPUDCAN FOUNDATIONS PENETRATING CLAY 685
210

10

20

30

40

50

60

70
250 240 230 220 210 0 10 20 30 40 50
(a)
210

10
(a)
20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90
250 240 230 220 210 0 10 20 30 40 50
(b)

20

(b)
40
Fig. 6. Digital images of deep spudcan foundations in centrifuge
tests with top free water: (a) d/D 1.43, 50g; (b) d/D 1.00,
100g
60

tion decreases with spudcan penetration from 1.5D to 1.3D,

which agrees well with the width of 1.5D reported by Craig
& Chua (1990) at shallow penetration (d/D ¼ 0.75). The 80
depth of onset of back-flow was assessed from the PIV data
captured during continuous penetration. It was found that the
average cavity depth, H, remained similar to the depth where
back-flow was first initiated (Fig. 5(c)). 100
Similar flow mechanisms and cavity formation were also
found in the large-penetration finite element analysis. Fig. 8 250 240 230 220 210 0 10 20 30 40 50
shows the FE results for a smooth spudcan in a soil with su (c)
¼ 18 kPa, ª ¼ 17 kN/m3 and D ¼ 12 m (without free water
on top, Case III in Table 2). Comparison with the centrifuge Fig. 7. Soil flow vectors from image analysis of centrifuge test
results in Fig. 7 shows close agreement in the lateral and (50g, without top free water) (figure axes in mm: model): (a)
vertical extent of the soil distortion zone. Note that the surface heave mechanism, d/D 0.16; (b) onset of flow-round
duraluminium spudcan model used for centrifuge testing mechanism, d/D 0.77; (c) full flow-round mechanism, d/D
would have led to a relatively smooth interface, with typical 1.15

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 686 HOSSAIN, HU, RANDOLPH AND WHITE
ratios of interface shear stress to the local soil shear strength
of 0.2–0.4 (Chen & Randolph, 2004).
0

Cavity stability
From the above observations in the centrifuge tests and
FE results, it can be seen that the cavity formation and
5 stable cavity depth are influenced by the soil unit weight (ª
or ª9) and spudcan foundation size (D), when the soil
strengths are of a similar magnitude. Moreover, in Figs 7
z: m

and 8, it is clear that the soil back-flow onto the spudcan

arises from flow around the spudcan edge. In neither the
10 physical nor numerical modelling was there any observation
of cavity wall failure, as adopted in the current offshore
design guidelines (SNAME, 1997) in assessing potential for
back-flow. To clarify this matter further, small-strain FE
analyses with a fully open cavity above the spudcan were
15 conducted.
0 5 10 15 Figure 9 presents FE results with a fully open cavity
x: m above the spudcan at three different pre-embedments. Soil
(a) parameters are the same as for Case III in Table 2 without
free water above the soil specimen. With a shallow cavity
above the spudcan (Fig. 9(a), d/D ¼ 0.225), soil around the
spudcan edge flows upwards and heaves as the spudcan
penetrates. When the cavity is deeper (Fig. 9(b), d/D ¼
0.35), the soil around the spudcan edge flows back onto the
0 exposed top of the spudcan, with little or no soil movement
near the soil surface. This mechanism is referred to as flow
failure, because it is due to the soil flow induced by spudcan
penetration. No cavity wall failure is observed at this stage.
However, when the initial open cavity becomes much deeper
5
(Fig. 9(c), d/D ¼ 0.517), once soil weight is applied in the
FE analysis, cavity wall failure occurs prior to penetration
z: m

of the spudcan. The cavity wall failure occurred at a greater

cavity depth than the flow failure induced by spudcan
10 penetration. This finding was confirmed by all the FE
analyses conducted, covering a parameter range of 3.5 <
ª9D/su < 22.7, which is in agreement with the observations
in the centrifuge tests.
Note that in Figs 8 and 9 sliding between spudcan and
15 soil is indicated by the displacement vectors on the nodal
0 5 10 15 joints, with the node on the spudcan moving vertically
x: m
downwards, while the node on the soil moves at an angle
(b)
(downwards and laterally outward).
Figure 10 plots the normalised stable cavity depths, H/D,
from wall failure and flow failure mechanisms, as a function
of the conventional stability number Ns (equation (1)). Both
0 sets of FE results are from small-strain analyses, with the
wall failure limits being the critical depth at which the
cavity wall failed (prior to loading the spudcan). The flow
failure data represent the depths for onset of back-flow, and
large-deformation analyses confirmed that the onset of back-
10 flow was consistent with the final average cavity depth. For
the wall failure mechanism, the FE results are compared
with the solutions from the suggested mechanisms of
z: m

Meyerhof (1972) and Britto & Kusakabe (1983). It can be

seen the FE predictions are bracketed by the two analytical
20 solutions. For the flow failure, the FE results are in good
agreement with the centrifuge observations. In contrast, the
wall failure approach greatly overestimates the stable cavity
depth, H, by a factor of up to 4, although this is not obvious
from Fig. 10 as H features on both axes. These results of
30 Hw and Hf are also listed in Table 3, noting that no
0 10 20 30
corresponding centrifuge model tests were undertaken for
x: m Cases II, IV and VI. The overall conclusion is that design
(c) guidelines for back-flow over spudcans should be based on
the transition to a flow failure mechanism rather than the
Fig. 8. Soil flow of large-deformation FE analysis (Case III, onset of wall failure, as currently recommended by the
Table 2): (a) d/D 0.154; (b) d/D 0.37; (c) d/D 1.37 design guidelines (SNAME, 1997).

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 LIMITING CAVITY DEPTH FOR SPUDCAN FOUNDATIONS PENETRATING CLAY 687
10

0 8

Ns
5 FE (wall failure)
4 Meyerhof (wall failure)
z: m

Britto & Kusakabe (wall failure)

FE (flow failure)
2 Centrifuge results

10
0
0 0·5 1·0 1·5 2·0
H/D

Fig. 10. Conventional cavity stability chart of flow failure and

15
wall failure
0 5 10 15
x: m
(a)
New design approach
The results shown in Fig. 10 indicate that the critical
failure mechanism that limits H is flow failure rather than
wall failure. To investigate the stability number that corre-
0 sponds to the onset of flow failure (or stable cavity depth), a
series of parametric studies using AFENA were conducted.
Soil unit weights of ª9 ¼ 17 kN/m3 and 7 kN/m3 were
chosen to represent soil without free water and with free
water respectively. Spudcan diameters of 18 m, 12 m and
5 6 m were considered to investigate the influence of founda-
z: m

tion size, resulting in six values of ª9D. In each case, the

soil undrained shear strength, su , was varied from 1 kPa to
60 kPa to investigate the soil strength effect on cavity
stability. Since no significant variation in predicted cavity
10 depth was found between smooth and rough spudcans, only
the results for smooth spudcans are discussed here. Both
small-strain and large-deformation analyses were performed.
Figure 11 shows the results using the conventional stabi-
lity number Ns (equation (1)). The difference in cavity depth
15
prediction between the small-strain and large-deformation
0 5 10 15 analyses is minimal, thus they are not discussed separately.
x: m
(b) From Fig. 11 it can be seen that all six cases lie close
together, forming a unique curve. For the centrifuge results,
as the cavity base is uneven, the bound values and average
value of the cavity depth are plotted (where the average ones
were plotted in Fig. 10). These values show good agreement
0 with the FE results. The small discrepancy found in the area
H/D , 0.2 arises only for very soft soil (su , 10 kPa) and
thus very large stability number. From a practical perspec-
tive, for very soft soil the cavity depth is almost negligible
and the spread in the FE results is not critical.
5 A curve can be developed to represent all the results from
centrifuge tests and FE analyses, expressed with a dimen-
sionless stability number using H rather than D:
z: m

  f2
ª9 H H
10
Ns ¼ ¼ f1 (4)
su D
where the best-fit values of the empirical constants are f1 ¼
1.01 and f2 ¼
0.81 with correlation coefficient R2 ¼ 0.99.
For design, the values of f1 and f2 can be rounded and the
15 stable depth expressed conveniently as
0 5 10 15  :
x: m H su 0 55
¼ (5)
(c) D ª9D
Fig. 9. Soil failure mechanisms of small-strain FE analyses with Previous researchers have also expressed their results in
a fully open cavity (Case III, Table 2): (a) surface failure, d/D terms of su /ª9D rather than ª9H/su (Herdy & Townsend,
0.225; (b) Flow failure, d/D 0.35; (c) Wall failure, d/D 0.517 1983; Higham, 1984; Craig & Chua, 1990). The relationship

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 688 HOSSAIN, HU, RANDOLPH AND WHITE
Table 3. Stability numbers for flow failure and wall failure

Flow failure Wall failure

Hf Hf /D Ns Hw Hw /D Ns

Case I FE 1.86 0.31 2.43 FE 4.51 0.75 5.90

Centrifuge 1.93 0.32 2.52 M 3.95 0.66 5.16
Case II FE 2.22 0.37 2.29 FE 6.07 1.01 6.25
Centrifuge * * * M 5.28 0.88 5.44
Case III FE 3.24 0.27 3.06 FE 5.70 0.47 5.38
Centrifuge 3.20 0.27 3.00 M 5.10 0.43 4.81
Case IV FE 3.40 0.28 2.89 FE 6.47 0.54 5.50
Centrifuge * * * M 5.77 0.48 4.90
Case V FE 2.85 0.48 1.66 FE 12.17 2.03 7.10
Centrifuge 2.90 0.49 1.69 M 10.65 1.78 6.21
Case VI FE 5.20 0.43 2.02 FE 17.23 1.44 6.70
Centrifuge * * * M 14.95 1.25 5.81

*No centrifuge test data.

M, analytical solution from Meyerhof.

10
15
㢠5 17 kN/m3, D 5 18 m
㢠5 7 kN/m3, D 5 18 m
㢠5 17 kN/m3, D 5 12 m
㢠5 7 kN/m3, D 5 12 m
㢠5 17 kN/m3, D 5 6 m
10
Fitted line 㢠5 7 kN/m3, D 5 6 m
H/D
㢠5 17 kN/m3, D 5 18 m
㢠5 7 kN/m3, D 5 18 m
Fitted line (equation (5))
㢠5 17 kN/m3, D 5 12 m
㢠5 7 kN/m3, D 5 12 m
㢠5 17 kN/m3, D 5 6 m
1
㢠5 7 kN/m3, D 5 6 m
Centrifuge test (average)
Centrifuge test (bound)

(equation (4)) Centrifuge test (average)

Centrifuge test (bound)
Ns

Unstable
0·1
5 Stable

Design
range
0·01
0 0·001 0·01 0·1 1 10
0 0·2 0·4 0·6 0·8 1·0 1·2 su/ã¢D
H/D
Fig. 12. New design chart for cavity depth after spudcan
Fig. 11. Conventional cavity stability chart of flow failure installation in uniform clay

is shown in Fig. 12, and provides a straightforward and
rational basis for assessing the limiting cavity depth prior to
back-flow.
CONCLUSIONS
This paper has reported the soil failure mechanisms and
cavity formation during penetration of spudcan foundations
into uniform clay with nominally constant strength with
depth. Drum centrifuge testing and finite element analysis
were conducted. Model tests using a half-spudcan with sub-
sequent PIV analyses were used to film the soil deformation
during spudcan penetration. Finite element analyses were
undertaken to verify and extend the model test observations,
with small-strain analyses of pre-embedded spudcans and
large-deformation analyses of spudcans penetrating from the
soil surface. The paper focuses specifically on the conditions
for the limiting stable cavity, rather than on the spudcan
penetration resistance, which will be covered elsewhere.
From both centrifuge and numerical investigations, it was
found that an open cavity is formed during the initial
penetration of the foundation, where the soil adjacent to the
spudcan edge flows upwards and outwards, resulting in
heave at the soil surface. Subsequently, at a certain penetra-
tion depth, the soil adjacent to the spudcan edge starts to
flow back gradually onto the exposed top of the spudcan.
Finally, the spudcan becomes fully embedded and a localised
deep failure mechanism is reached, where further penetration
has no effect on the cavity formed initially or the soil
surface profile.
When soil starts to flow back onto the top of the spudcan,
the existing open cavity remains stable. No evidence of
cavity collapse, as would be indicated by inward and down-
ward soil movements extending up to the soil surface, was
observed in either the model tests or the numerical analysis.
The onset of back-flow above the spudcan may also be taken
as the (average) stable cavity depth after deep penetration of
the spudcan, and is a function of soil unit weight (ª9 in
submerged conditions), soil strength (su ) and foundation size
(D).
From a series of FE analyses with an initial open cavity
above a pre-embedded spudcan, it was found that the soil
back-flow is caused by the spudcan penetration ( flow fail-
ure), rather than instability of the cavity wall (wall failure).
This contrasts with recommendations for estimating the
point of back-flow onto spudcans in the current design
guidelines (SNAME, 1997), which are based on collapse
conditions for an open cavity. The wall failure criterion can
overestimate the stable cavity depth by up to four times
compared with a criterion for flow failure.

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 LIMITING CAVITY DEPTH FOR SPUDCAN FOUNDATIONS PENETRATING CLAY
Conditions for back-flow, and the limiting cavity depth, H,
may be expressed simply as
 :
H su 0 55
¼ (5)
D ª9D
where ª9 is applicable for submerged conditions, but ª
should be used if the cavity is not filled by free water. This
relationship appears extremely robust over the wide range of
soil strengths and foundation diameters explored. The im-
portance of the condition for back-flow expressed here
extends beyond mere estimation of the penetration resis-
tance. Because back-flow provides a seal over the top of the
spudcan, the above relationship also provides quantitative
guidance on conditions where transient suctions may be
sustainable beneath the spudcan, with a consequential in-
crease in uplift resistance and moment capacity at low
vertical loads.
The results presented in this paper are being extended to
consider more general strength profiles, in particular those
more typical of offshore conditions where the soil strength
increases markedly with depth. However, the criterion for
the stable cavity depth (equation (5)) should prove conserva-
tive (i.e. will overestimate H) for cases where the strength
increases with depth, provided the shear strength at the
stable cavity depth (H) is used, as lower shear strengths at
shallower depths will encourage back-flow rather than open
cavity failure. A further consideration is that natural soils
tend to show greater sensitivity than the reconstituted kaolin
used for the model tests reported here. The effect of this on
H appears to be low, given the good agreement between the
FE analyses (where no strain-softening was incorporated)
and the model tests in kaolin with a sensitivity of 2 to 2.5.
Higher sensitivity will, if anything, give earlier back-flow,
and thus a lower value of H.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The research presented here is supported by the Australian
Research Council through the Large ARC discovery scheme
(A00105806). This support is gratefully acknowledged. Ex-
periments could not have been performed without the sup-
port of the Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems (COFS),
established and supported under the Australian Research
Council’s Research Centres Program, and especially the
drum centrifuge technician Mr Bart Thompson.
NOTATION
d penetration depth of spudcan shoulder or edge (lower point)
D spudcan diameter at largest section
f empirical constant in cavity stability formula
g acceleration due to earth’s gravity
H open cavity depth after spudcan installation
Hf cavity depth to initiate flow failure (taken as identical to H)
Hw cavity depth to initiate cavity wall failure
hmin minimum element size in FE mesh
Ns cavity stability number ¼ ª9H/su
su undrained shear strength of soil
z depth below soil surface
ª total unit weight of soil
ª9 effective unit weight of soil
ªw unit weight of water
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