TY - JOUR A1 - Kemmler, Samuel A1 - Cuéllar, Pablo A1 - Artinov, Antoni A1 - Luu, Li-Hua A1 - Farhat, Abbas A1 - Philippe, Pierre A1 - Rettinger, Christoph A1 - Köstler, Harald T1 - A fully-resolved micromechanical simulation of piping erosion during a suction bucket installation N2 - Granular fluidization phenomena such as piping erosion represent a challenge to the delicate installation process of offshore suction bucket foundations. A detailed analysis of the complex conditions in terms of soil composition, soil state, and foundation installation parameters that may lead to piping can be very demanding, if at all possible, solely by experimental means or using macroscopic continuum-based seabed models. The present paper presents a fully-resolved fluid-coupled micromechanical approach for a three-dimensional numerical simulation of the installation process of a suction bucket using the lattice Boltzmann method and discrete element method. The developed model is validated using well-established benchmarks and calibrated by means of experimental data from physical model tests on relevant scenarios focusing on the local fluidization of fixed embedded suction buckets as well as on the suction-driven installation of unrestrained buckets. The qualitative and quantitative agreement with the experimental data both endorse the proposed methodology and highlight the physical soundness of the obtained results. Thereby, the paper shows that three-dimensional analyses of relevant local scenarios at a real scale with little macromechanical model assumptions are feasible. KW - Micromechanical simulation KW - Fluid–solid coupling KW - Piping erosion KW - Suction bucket foundation KW - Offshore wind support structure KW - High-performance computing PY - 2025 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-633790 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compgeo.2025.107375 SN - 0266-352X VL - 186 SP - 1 EP - 17 PB - Elsevier B.V. AN - OPUS4-63379 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -