Multi-bucket foundation is generally adopted for actual offshore platforms;however

its perfor- mance has been short of theoretical analysis and experimental research.To evaluate the bearing capacity of a multi-bucket foundation on soft soils

the first offshore platform CB20B composed of suctional bucket foundation in China is taken for an example for the development of a finite element procedure based on the bearing capacity of single bucket foundation.And the finite element procedure is extended to set up a three-dimensional finite element model for double and four-bucket foundations.The relationship of bearing capacity between a multi-bucket foundation and a single-bucket foundation is explored to formulate the failure mechanisms of composite multi-bucket foundation and the soil underneath

which will be helpful in engineering practice.