Investigation of vertical pullout cyclic response of bucket foundations in saturated loose sand

Abstract

A series of 1 g model tests were conducted to investigate the accumulated vertical pullout displacement and unloading stiffness of bucket foundations embedded in saturated sands. The foundations were subjected to vertical pullout cyclic loading with different load amplitudes. The cyclic load was applied up to 104 cycles. Test results showed that the accumulated vertical pullout displacement increased with the increase in the number of load cycles and cyclic load amplitudes. The unloading stiffness of the bucket foundations decreased with the increase in load amplitude and load cycles.