Buckling Analysis of Bucket Foundations for Wind Turbines in Deep Water

Using large suction caissons for offshore wind turbines is an upcoming technology also referred to as bucket foundations. The bucket foundation does not require heavy installation equipment, but since it is constructed as a thin steel shell structure, instability, in form of buckling, becomes a crucial issue during installation. This paper addresses the hydrostatic buckling pressure of the bucket foundation using threedimensional, non-linear finite element analysis. The main finding of this paper is that introducing an imperfect geometry based on the first linear pre-buckling mode shape, can increase the buckling load significantly