On the extrication of large objects from the ocean bottom (the breakout phenomenon)

An analytical theory is developed to describe how negative pressure, (or ‘mud suction’, as it is sometimes referred to) develops underneath a body as it detaches itself from the ocean bottom. Biot's quasistatic equations of poro-elasticity are used to model the ocean bottom, and a general three-dimensional time-dependent analysis of the problem is worked out first using the boundary-layer approximation recently proposed by Mei and Foda. Then, explicit leading-order analytical solutions are presented for the problems of extrication of slender bodies as well as axisymmetric bodies from the ocean bottom.