Study on factors affecting maximum static friction coefficient of artificial reefs

Maximum static friction coefficient between artificial reef and seabed is an important parameter for safety check of artificial reefs. The analysis of the influencing factors can be used as the scientific basis for optimization of artificial reef design. In this study, we designed six kinds of artificial reef models, and measured the maximum static friction coefficient of the reef models with five kinds of additional loading quality and sediment size by 150 groups of experiments, so as to analyze the changes of maximum static friction coefficient caused by given sediment particle size, sediment moisture content, loading quality, reef bottom opening ratio and opening position. The results show that: 1) At water saturation, the maximum static friction coefficient increased with decreasing sediment size except when the sediment was silt. The friction force on silt was smaller obviously due to soft flowing characteristic of ground; 2) When the sediment was silt, the maximum static friction coefficient increased obviously with increasing water content first, but decreased afterwards. When the water content was 35%, the maximum static friction coefficient reached the maximum value; 3) The maximum static friction coefficient in all the sediments declined with increasing loading quality. The ratio of bottom opening was positively correlated with static friction force, while the position of bottom opening did not affect the maximum static friction coefficient.