Suction caissons are widely used to support offshore fixed platforms in coastal areas. The loadings transferred to suction caissons include the eccentric lateral force induced by waves and self weight of the platform structure. However, under this kind of combined loading conditions, the failure mechanism of caissons with shallow embedment depths is quite different from conventional deep foundations or onshore shallow footings. The behaviour of caissons subjected to combined loadings may be described with the ＂failure locus＂ in force resultant spaces. Here the failure loci of smooth caissons are studied by use of finite dement approach, with the embedment ratio of caissons varying in the range of 0.25 - 1.0 and eccentricity ratio of horizontal loadiugs in 0 - 10. The platform settlement and tilt limits are involved into determination of failure loci, thus the platforms can avoid significant displacements for the combined loadings located inside the failure locus. Three families of loading paths are used to map out the locus. It is found that the shape of failure loci depends on 3 non-dimensional parameters, and the failure locus of a given caisson changes gradually from the elliptical curve to hooked curve with increasing shear strength of soil. The lateral capacity of short caissons may be enhanced by vertical forces, compared with the maximum lateral capacity of long caissons occurring at the vertical force being zero. The critical embedment ratios partitioning elliptical and hooked loci are proposed.
Naturally deposited clay is usually characterized by strength anisotropy; however, the effect of anisotropy on the capacity of a suction caisson was seldom investigated. The conventional Hill yield surface includes undrained strengths in triaxial shear, simple shear and pressuremeter shear simultaneously but it can not specify differences in respect to the mode of loading for a given shearing mode. A new technique of updating strength is integrated into incremental finite element （FE） calculation to consider the mode of loading, which is applied to the study of variation of capacity with the aspect ratio of suction caissons in anisotropic clay. Compared with the upper bound limit analysis, FE simulation is capable of offering the lateral capacity of short caissons. In the normal range of anisotropic strength properties, the Mises yield surface with simple shear strength predicts the horizontal capacity of which the error is less than 10% for rough caissons and 15% for smooth caissons. It is also found that the friction of caisson affects the capacity significantly.
