Abstract
Suction anchors have advantages over drag or pile anchors, in precise placement and installation feasibility at deep water locations, and have been employed in mooring systems of floating platforms for offshore gas/oil production in e.g. Gulf of Mexico. Growing attention has recently been given in Japan to offshore wind power generation utilizing floating structures, whereas sandy deposits are widely formed at seabed surfaces around the country. Centrifuge model tests have been carried out to study the holding behavior of suction anchors in saturated loose sandy ground with viscous scaling taken into consideration, focusing on effects of drawing speed, direction of the mooring line, and location of the connecting point between anchor and the line. There observed increase in peak tension force in mooring lines in both vertical and inclined rapid pullout cases, associated with negative fluid pressures developed inside the anchor and at the anchor tip, even installed in sandy deposits.
