Bearing properties of deep-sea methane hydrate-bearing foundation by discrete element method

The bearing properties of methane hydrate-bearing foundation will be changed by massive exploitation of methane hydrate, which is originally stored in deep-sea methane hydrate-bearing soils and influences the properties of the foundation. Plate loading tests on methane hydrate-bearing foundations with three different hydrate saturations are performed using the micro-bond contact model considering hydrate cementation thickness of the deep-sea methane hydrate-bearing soils proposed by Jiang et al. The bearing properties of methane hydrate-bearing soils are analyzed, the effect of hydrate saturation on the bearing capacity of methane hydrate bearing foundation is studied, and the law of the distribution of base pressure is discussed. The results show that the bearing capacity of methane hydrate-bearing foundation increases with the increase of saturation on the original foundation. The bearing capacity of foundation sharply decreases after the methane hydrate is mined, and the higher the original hydrate saturation is, the more the bearing capacity will lose on the mined methane hydrate-bearing soils; the higher the hydrate saturation is, the closer to vertical downward the p-s curve is after reaching the ultimate bearing capacity. The destruction of the cementations has a critical load, and the foundations with different hydrate saturations follow different failure laws. The hydrate saturation just has little effect on the shape of distribution of the base pressure, but the shapes are markedly different under different settlements.