Alternative Title
Jackup Rig Spud Can Penetration: A 6,000 Ton Load Test
Location
Arlington, Virginia
Date
14 Aug 2008, 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Abstract
One of the most exciting geotechnical problems for the offshore engineer is the prediction of mobile jack-up rig spud can penetration. Jack-up drilling rigs are used to drill offshore oil and gas wells in water depths up to about 100 m. The rigs are supported by circular “spud can” foundations fitted at the end of extendable platform legs. Upon arrival to the site the jack-up extends the legs to the sea floor and self-elevates out of the water. This action forces the spud cans into the seabed until soil capacity is attained. Prior to jacking the rig out of the water, a geotechnical borehole is made from the rig to verify soil conditions and estimate bearing capacity and leg penetration. The geotechnical engineer makes predictions of foundation capacity in real time; the predictions are then verified by the actual behavior of the footing under the 6,000 ton preload. This paper presents experience with bearing capacity predictions versus field measurements from over 15 offshore sites. Relatively simple closed form bearing capacity formulas are shown to provide good predictions for real behavior of these large scale foundations.
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Meeting Name
6th Conference of the International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering
Publisher
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Document Version
Final Version
Rights
© 2008 Missouri University of Science and Technology, All rights reserved.
Creative Commons Licensing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
File Type
text
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Parker, Eric J.; Mirabelli, Francesco; and Paoletti, Lorenzo, "Case Histories Paper: Jackup Rig Spud Can Penetration: A 6,000 Ton Load Test" (2008). International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. 1.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/icchge/6icchge/session09/1
Case Histories Paper: Jackup Rig Spud Can Penetration: A 6,000 Ton Load Test
Arlington, Virginia
One of the most exciting geotechnical problems for the offshore engineer is the prediction of mobile jack-up rig spud can penetration. Jack-up drilling rigs are used to drill offshore oil and gas wells in water depths up to about 100 m. The rigs are supported by circular “spud can” foundations fitted at the end of extendable platform legs. Upon arrival to the site the jack-up extends the legs to the sea floor and self-elevates out of the water. This action forces the spud cans into the seabed until soil capacity is attained. Prior to jacking the rig out of the water, a geotechnical borehole is made from the rig to verify soil conditions and estimate bearing capacity and leg penetration. The geotechnical engineer makes predictions of foundation capacity in real time; the predictions are then verified by the actual behavior of the footing under the 6,000 ton preload. This paper presents experience with bearing capacity predictions versus field measurements from over 15 offshore sites. Relatively simple closed form bearing capacity formulas are shown to provide good predictions for real behavior of these large scale foundations.
