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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Oceans".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 16683

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Jun Hu

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Guest Editor

School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China
Interests: offshore geotechnical engineering; tunnelling and underground space technology; marine civil engineering construction; artificial ground freezing technology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Guan Chen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Institute for Risk and Reliability, Leibniz University Hannover, 30167 Hannover, Germany
Interests: geotechnical earthquake engineering; seisimc hazards and risk analysis; soil mechanics; uncertainty quantification; geotechnical reliability; signal processing; structural health monitoring (SHM)
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Dr. Yong Fu

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Guest Editor

Department of Ocean Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China
Interests: marine geotechnical engineering; offshore foundations; underground space technology; physical experiments and finite element modelling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to inform you that we have launched a new Special Issue of Sustainability (IF 3.251, JCR Q2), entitled "Marine geotechnical engineering and marine civil engineering construction”. This Special Issue aims to advance the state-of-the-art of marine civil engineering construction techniques, constructive models of marine geotechnical materials, and marine structural response analysis through experiments, numerical simulations, and field surveys.

Marine geotechnical engineering attracts increasing attention with the rise of offshore structure construction, such as oil and gas platforms and undersea tunnels. Marine geotechnical hazards, on the other hand, remain a major challenge. Marine soil exposed to seawater significantly differs from conventional soil in physical and mechanical properties. This peculiarity further affects marine geotechnical structures, for example in terms of marine foundation treatment, marine slope, anchors, and wind turbine pile foundations. Marine civil engineering construction techniques also vary due to the specificity of marine geotechnics. To better understand marine geotechnical concerns in practice, the introduction of marine civil engineering construction techniques and marine geotechnical hazards based on field surveys is also appreciated. We hope that this Special Issue will provide new insights into marine geotechnical challenges in marine civil construction and fill some research gaps in the field of marine geotechnical engineering.

This complex task revolves around several topics, including but not limited to the following:

Marine soil mechanics;
Offshore foundations;
Marine geohazards;
Wind turbine pile foundations;
Artificial ground freezing technology;
Seismic hazards and risk analysis of offshore structures;
Reinforcement treatment methods for soft coastal foundations;
Marine soil mechanics testing and testing technology;
Marine renewable energy;
Structural health monitoring of marine structures;
Uncertainty quantification of marine soil and structures;
Reliability analysis of marine structures.

Prof. Dr. Jun Hu
Dr. Guan Chen
Dr. Yong Fu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

marine geotechnical engineering
offshore engineering
geotechnical testing
underground technology
earthquake engineering
numerical simulation
construction
disaster

Published Papers (10 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 13285 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Calculation Method for Uplift Capacity of Suction Caisson in Sand Considering Different Drainage Conditions

by Chenggen Xu, Haitao Jiang, Mengtao Xu, Decheng Sun and Shengjie Rui

Sustainability 2023, 15(1), 454; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15010454 - 27 Dec 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2001

Abstract

Uplift capacity of suction caissons is one of the main concerns in the design of jackets with multi-caissons supported offshore wind turbine. The uplift movement of suction caissons leads to soil stress variation and increases the difficulty to predict the uplift capacity. In this paper, a calculation method considering soil stress release and differential pressure contribution is proposed to predict the uplift capacity of caisson. Firstly, a series of numerical simulations based on the SANISAND model are conducted to study the uplift responses of suction caisson in sand, and it is verified with centrifuge test results. Considering the soil drainage condition during caisson being pulled out, the fully drained, partially drained and undrained are divided, and an equation is provided to assess differential pressure beneath the caisson lid incorporating the effects of main factors. Based on the above simulation results, a calculation method is proposed to calculate the uplift capacity of caissons. The prediction results are compared with the centrifuge model tests and previous studies, which indicate that the prediction accuracy is much improved. This proposed method contributes to the more accurate assessment of uplift capacity of suction caisson in sand. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Geotechnical Engineering and Marine Civil Engineering Construction)

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16 pages, 5307 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A New p–y Curve for Laterally Loaded Large-Diameter Monopiles in Soft Clays

by Mingyuan Wang, Miao Wang, Xinglei Cheng, Qun Lu and Jiaqing Lu

Sustainability 2022, 14(22), 15102; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142215102 - 15 Nov 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1283

Abstract

In harsh offshore environmental conditions, the monopile foundations supporting offshore wind turbines must be designed for lateral loads such as winds, waves, and currents. The Beam on Nonlinear Winkler Foundation (BNWF) method has been widely used because of its clear concept and lower calculation cost. The selection of a reasonable p–y curve is critical to the calculation accuracy of this method. This paper clarified the defects of widely used API p–y curves for soft clays and then proposed a new p–y curve with better versatility and applicability. The suitability of the proposed p–y curve was validated by comparing it with the calculation results from the three-dimensional finite element method (3D FEM). Compared with the API p–y curve, the proposed p–y curve can better predict the lateral behavior of large-diameter piles in soft clays, such as the load–displacement curve of the pile head, lateral deflection profile, and bending moment profile. The research findings can provide guidance for the design of monopile foundations supporting offshore wind turbines in soft clays. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Geotechnical Engineering and Marine Civil Engineering Construction)

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12 pages, 3214 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Performance Investigation of Geopolymer Grouting Material with Varied Mix Proportions

by Jianwei Liu, Han Feng, Yongxing Zhang and Kaiqi Zheng

Sustainability 2022, 14(20), 13046; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142013046 - 12 Oct 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1373

Abstract

Grouting materials require not only high ultra-early-stage strength of the stone body, but also proper working performances, such as high fluidity and fast setting time, as well as good stability. Compared with the traditional pure cement grout, geopolymer grouting material has the advantages of fast setting time, high fluidity, good slurry stability, and high early strength of the slurry stone body, which is beneficial to reuse solid waste resources and can be applied to the conditions of rapid construction or repair work to a certain extent. This paper presents an experimental investigation into the performance variation of geopolymer grouting material with varied mass fractions of raw materials, and the grouting performance of geopolymer material with optimal mix proportion is also presented. The study is implemented by employing the designed experimental schemes, focused on fluidity and setting times, as well as ultra-early-stage (4 h, 8 h, 12 h, 16 h, 20 h, and 24 h) mechanical strength. The experimental result demonstrates that both ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS) content and the mass ratio of activator solution to solid have influence on the working performance of geopolymers, and both GGBS content and activator concentration have influence on the mechanical strength of geopolymers. Furthermore, the variance analysis demonstrates that the fluidity of geopolymer material is dominantly affected by the mass ratio of activator solution to solid, the setting time of geopolymer material is mainly influenced by GGBS content, and the mechanical strength of geopolymer material is mainly affected by activator concentration. Moreover, the recommended mix proportion of geopolymer grouting material is proposed in this study, in which the replacement rate of GGBS is 45%; the modulus and concentration of modified sodium silicate activator are 1.5 and 75%, respectively; and the mass ratio of activator solution to solid is 1.5. In the recommended mix proportion, the geopolymer material has excellent comprehensive performance to implement grouting operation, in which the compressive and tensile strengths of the stone body reach 12.2 MPa and 0.8 MPa in 4 h, and reach 21.2 MPa and 2.1 MPa in 24 h. The fluidity is 223 mm, the initial setting and final setting times are 50 min and 57 min, the slurry stability of geopolymer material is good without liquid precipitation, in which the setting time is far less than 2 h. This work provides the experimental foundations for investigating the performance of geopolymer grouting material, which is also expected to provide reference for the further application and promotion of geopolymer materials used for grouting operations in rapid construction or repair work. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Geotechnical Engineering and Marine Civil Engineering Construction)

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19 pages, 5102 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Experimental Study on Load-Carrying Behavior of Large Open-Ended Pipe Pile in Cohesionless Soils

by Yuan Guo, Jiale Li and Xiong Yu

Sustainability 2022, 14(19), 12223; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912223 - 27 Sep 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1479

Abstract

Large-diameter open-ended pipe piles typically refer to pipe piles with diameters larger than 0.91 m. These piles, when properly designed and constructed, could provide high load-carrying capacity against axial loading, uplift, and overturning in the offshore environment. The current American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) specification for pipe piles is based on the database collected from piles with diameters less than 0.61 m and is, therefore, insufficient for the design of large-diameter open-ended pipe piles. This paper introduces an experimental program to investigate the static load-carrying behavior of open-ended pipe piles. Two types of restriction plates, i.e., one-hole plate and four-hole plate, were designed and installed inside the pipe to study their influence on the loading bearing behavior. Beside the laboratory-scale pile experiments, the testing program was augmented with geotechnical centrifuge experiments, which upscale the dimensions of model piles close to the size used at the field scale. The combined laboratory and geotechnical centrifuge experiments help to analyze the load-carrying behavior of pipe piles with different pile diameters, types of restriction plate, and embedment depths. The experimental results indicate that the formation of a soil plug is crucial to mobilize the bearing capacity of pipe piles. The restriction plate helps to form the soil plugging, which leads to a higher end bearing capacity. The selection of types of restriction plate should be determined on a case-by-case basis with considerations of mechanical performance and pile drivability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Geotechnical Engineering and Marine Civil Engineering Construction)

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15 pages, 4387 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Experimental Study on Stiffness Degradation of Organic Matter-Disseminated Sand under Cyclic Loading

by Juan Du, Xingfei Jiang, Bingyang Liu, Lin Jia and Yang Zhang

Sustainability 2022, 14(18), 11793; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141811793 - 19 Sep 2022

Viewed by 1435

Abstract

Degradation of stiffness will occur in sand under cyclic loading. Organic matter-disseminated sand (OMDS) is a special sand in the northeast and western coastal region of Hainan Island. Through the stress-controlled dynamic triaxial test, the natural moisture content, vibration amplitude and consolidation ratio of OMDS under three types of cyclic loads (sine wave, triangular wave and rectangular wave) were studied. The results showed that the soil stiffness decreases with the increase in vibration times. The increase in natural moisture content and vibration amplitude, and the reduction in the consolidation ratio accelerate the softening of soil stiffness. Furthermore, based on the test results, an empirical formula was derived to reflect the rule of soil stiffness softening. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Geotechnical Engineering and Marine Civil Engineering Construction)

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16 pages, 2531 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Experimental Study on the Preparation of a Highly Active Bacterial Suspension for MICP in the South China Sea

by Yuxuan Zhou, Jun Hu, Yuwei Wu, Hui Zeng, Dongling Zeng and Zhixin Wang

Sustainability 2022, 14(15), 9748; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14159748 - 08 Aug 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1494

Abstract

Most previous studies investigating the use of microbial-induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) to reinforce foundations have indicated that the final curing effect can be improved by changing the nutrient environment parameters during the MICP reaction. However, using such methods to improve the construction process increases the construction cost and the impact on the surrounding environment. This study was conducted to determine if we could prepare a bacterial suspension with high activity in a short period of time by examining the effects of inoculation time, the concentration of the inoculated bacterial suspension, and shaker speed during expansion to determine whether sporosarcina pasteurii would vigorously grow. Based on the analysis of the pattern of activity variations in the bacterial suspension, the most appropriate growth scheme for preparing high-activity bacterial suspensions when using MICP to strengthen structures in the South China Sea was proposed. In terms of the results, it was found that the trend of changes in activity and the peak time of maximum activity in the bacteriophage cultured under low-speed conditions in the expanded culture tended to be the same. The value of the bacteriophage’s activity was low. During medium speed culture of the bacterial suspension, urease activity peaked much higher than that of the other comparison groups, with the medium speed bacterial broth having the highest peak. As a result of the prolonged shaking incubation time, the effect of prolonged shaking on urease activity in the bacterial suspension was mainly reflected in the fact that the activity decay cycle of the colony itself was slowed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Geotechnical Engineering and Marine Civil Engineering Construction)

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14 pages, 2908 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sensitivity Analysis of Factors Affecting the Bearing Capacity of Suction Bucket Foundation in Soft Clay

by Bin Wang, Ming-Hui Yuan, Liang Li, Chang-Feng Yuan, Ying Li and Kan-Min Shen

Sustainability 2022, 14(15), 9615; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14159615 - 04 Aug 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1554

Abstract

A suction bucket is the foundation for the development of offshore wind power technology in the deep sea, and its stability is crucial to the superstructure of the wind power generation system. Combined with soft clay soil strata along the Chinese coast, the bearing capacity of suction bucket foundations was studied using a numerical model. Sensitivity factors such as soil strength with random space distribution, dimensions of foundation, wind and wave loads in different directions, and cycle times were considered. The results show that the normalized foundation bearing capacity coefficient increases with the increase of the foundation length–diameter ratio. When the foundation length–diameter ratio is less than 1.0, the foundation bearing capacity coefficient is more sensitive to the soil non-uniformity coefficient than the length–diameter ratio. When the length–diameter ratio of the suction bucket is large enough, the influence of the soil non-uniformity coefficient on the bearing capacity of the suction bucket foundation gradually diminishes. When the direction of wind and wave loads is 15°, the bearing capacity of the suction bucket foundation is the weakest. Under the cyclic loads, the shallow soil strength weakens faster in the initial stage and the attenuation rate of soil strength slows down in the latter stage. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Geotechnical Engineering and Marine Civil Engineering Construction)

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21 pages, 6939 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Influence of Mixing Degree between Coarse and Fine Particles on the Strength of Offshore and Coast Foundations

by Shunkai Liu, Yuxing Nie, Wei Hu, Mohammed Ashiru, Zhong Li and Jun Zuo

Sustainability 2022, 14(15), 9177; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14159177 - 27 Jul 2022

Cited by 19 | Viewed by 1381

Abstract

The variability in strata of foundation soil in marine environments makes it tedious to design foundations for offshore structures. Hence, it is essential to investigate and evaluate the strength properties of this type of soil. This study investigates the variability of the soil strata (which is quantified by the index of the mixing degree between coarse and fine particles) and its influence on the stability of the soil by mixing coarse and fine particles at varying proportions. A series of discrete element method triaxial shear tests were conducted on binary geotechnical mixtures with a varying proportion of coarse content (25%, 50% and 75%) and different mixing degrees (ranging from 0.0 to 1.0). The macroscopic results show that the peak shear strength increases with an increase in mixing degree, and the increase is more obvious with increasing coarse content, while the critical shear strength is independent of the mixing degree. The main evaluation of the number, mean normal force and distribution of the coarse–fine (cf) contact helps to clarify the meso-mechanisms that result in the variations in peak shear strength and critical shear strength with mixing degree. The increase in the peak strength may primarily be due to the increased number and globalized distribution of coarse–fine contact. However, the decreased contact force of coarse–fine contact counterbalances the strength gain due to the increased number and globalized distribution, which maintain the stability of the critical strength. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Geotechnical Engineering and Marine Civil Engineering Construction)

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15 pages, 24560 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Uplift Behavior of Pipelines Buried at Various Depths in Spatially Varying Clayey Seabed

by Po Cheng, Jia Guo, Kai Yao, Chaofan Liu, Xiushui Liu and Fei Liu

Sustainability 2022, 14(13), 8139; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14138139 - 04 Jul 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1453

Abstract

The behavior of buried offshore pipelines subjected to upheaval buckling has attracted much attention in recent years. Numerous researchers have made great efforts to investigate the influence of different soil cover depth ratios, soil strengths and pipe-soil interfaces on failure mechanisms and bearing capacities during pipeline uplift. However, attention to soil spatial variability has been relatively limited. To address this gap, a random small-strain finite element analysis has been conducted and reported in this paper to evaluate the influence of the random distribution of soil strength on pipe uplift response. The validity of the numerical model was verified by comparison with the results presented in the previous literature. The spatial variation of soil strength was simulated by a random field. The effect of soil variability on the failure mechanism was determined by comparing the displacement contours of each random realization. Probabilistic analyses were performed on the random uplift capacity obtained by a series of Monte Carlo simulations, and the relationship between the failure probability and the safety factor was also determined. The findings of the present work might serve as a reference for the safety designs of pipelines. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Geotechnical Engineering and Marine Civil Engineering Construction)

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20 pages, 6324 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Study on the Horizontal Bearing Characteristic of a New Type of Offshore Rubber Airbag Branch Pile

by Xiaolei Wang, Zeyuan Wang, Changfeng Yuan and Libo Liu

Sustainability 2022, 14(12), 7331; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14127331 - 15 Jun 2022

Viewed by 1169

Abstract

In this work, a new type of marine rubber airbag branch pile has been presented, and the influences of the exposed length L₀ of the pile, size of rubber airbag branch and depth S₀ of rubber airbag branch embedded in soil on the horizontal bearing capacity of the pile, have been investigated using numerical simulations. Simulation results were used to modify the eigenvalue equations of the horizontal bearing capacity. The results also showed that reverse displacement and the bending moment of the rubber airbag branch pile were lower in pipe piles with larger diameters, and the horizontal bearing capacity was more stable. At small horizontal displacements of the pile top, horizontal bearing capacities of large-diameter pipe piles were slightly higher, while for the pile’s top horizontal displacements of above 10 mm, horizontal bearing capacities of rubber airbag branch piles became significantly greater than those of the large-diameter pipe piles. Based on assumptions, the calculation equations of vacuum negative pressure and friction force between the rubber airbag branch and soil were derived. The equations for calculating the characteristic horizontal bearing capacities of rubber airbag branch piles were also derived and were modified based on simulation results. The calculation results confirmed the improvement in the accuracy of the modified equations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Geotechnical Engineering and Marine Civil Engineering Construction)

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