• Title/Summary/Keyword: Gravity based offshore structure

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New Development of Hybrid Concrete Support Structure with Driven Piles for Offshore Wind Turbines (하이브리드 해상풍력 파일 기초 콘크리트 지지구조(MCF) 개발)

  • Kim, Hyun Gi;Kim, Bum Jun;Kim, Ki Du
    • Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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    • v.25 no.3
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    • pp.307-320
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    • 2013
  • This paper proposes a new hybrid support structure by the driven piles which removes disadvantages of the existing type of support structure for offshore wind turbines. The hybrid type of support structure is combined with concrete cone and steel shaft, and is supported not only by gravity type foundations but also by driven piles. For three dimensional analysis of the huge and thick concrete structure, a solid-shell element that is capable of exact modeling and node interpolations of stresses is developed. By applying wave theory of stream function and solid-shell element in XSEA simulation software for fixed offshore wind turbines, a quasi-static analysis and natural frequency analysis of proposed support structure are performed with the environmental condition on Southwest Coast in Korea. In the result, lateral displacement is not exceed allowable displacement and a superiority of dynamic behavior of new hybrid support structure is validated by natural frequency analysis. Consequently, the hybrid support structure presented in this study has a structural stability enough to be applied on real-site condition in Korea. The optimized structures based on the preliminary design concept resulted in an efficient structure, which reasonably reduces fabrication costs.

The Calculation and Design Method of Active Earth Pressure with Type of Gravity Structures (중력식 구조물의 형태에 따른 주동토압 산정과 설계법 제안)

  • Kim, Byung-Il;Jeong, Young-Jin;Kim, Do-Hyung;Lee, Chung-Ho;Han, Sang-Jae
    • Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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    • v.30 no.4
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    • pp.47-63
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    • 2014
  • In this study theories of earth pressure such as Rankine, Coulomb, Trial Wedge, Improved Trial Wedge, used in the design for onshore and offshore structures, are analyzed and the characteristics of loaded pressure to virtual back (wall, plane) and wall surface in accordance with the structure type are suggested. To investigate characteristics of earth pressure, gravity retaining wall with inclined angle and cantilever wall with inclined ground are movilized for onshore structures and caisson and block type quay wall are mobilized for offshore structures. Based on various theories, the earth pressure applied angle(wall friction angle) and sliding angle toward the wall, which is influenced by the heel length, are calculated and compared. In the case of long heel, the pressure by Rankine's method in virtual plane and the mobilized angle are most reasonably estimated by the ground slope, and in the case of short heel, the pressure by Coulomb's method and the mobilized angle by the angle of wall friction. In addition, the sliding angle toward the wall estimated by the improved trial wedge method is large than the value of Rankine's method. Finally, in this study the reasonable method for calculating the pressure and the mobilized angle that can be applied to the routine design of port structures is proposed. The proposed method can decide the earth pressure with length of a heel and a self weight of retaining wall according to sliding angle toward the wall.

Geology of Athabasca Oil Sands in Canada (캐나다 아사바스카 오일샌드 지질특성)

  • Kwon, Yi-Kwon
    • The Korean Journal of Petroleum Geology
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    • v.14 no.1
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    • pp.1-11
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    • 2008
  • As conventional oil and gas reservoirs become depleted, interests for oil sands has rapidly increased in the last decade. Oil sands are mixture of bitumen, water, and host sediments of sand and clay. Most oil sand is unconsolidated sand that is held together by bitumen. Bitumen has hydrocarbon in situ viscosity of >10,000 centipoises (cP) at reservoir condition and has API gravity between $8-14^{\circ}$. The largest oil sand deposits are in Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada. The reverves are approximated at 1.7 trillion barrels of initial oil-in-place and 173 billion barrels of remaining established reserves. Alberta has a number of oil sands deposits which are grouped into three oil sand development areas - the Athabasca, Cold Lake, and Peace River, with the largest current bitumen production from Athabasca. Principal oil sands deposits consist of the McMurray Fm and Wabiskaw Mbr in Athabasca area, the Gething and Bluesky formations in Peace River area, and relatively thin multi-reservoir deposits of McMurray, Clearwater, and Grand Rapid formations in Cold Lake area. The reservoir sediments were deposited in the foreland basin (Western Canada Sedimentary Basin) formed by collision between the Pacific and North America plates and the subsequent thrusting movements in the Mesozoic. The deposits are underlain by basement rocks of Paleozoic carbonates with highly variable topography. The oil sands deposits were formed during the Early Cretaceous transgression which occurred along the Cretaceous Interior Seaway in North America. The oil-sands-hosting McMurray and Wabiskaw deposits in the Athabasca area consist of the lower fluvial and the upper estuarine-offshore sediments, reflecting the broad and overall transgression. The deposits are characterized by facies heterogeneity of channelized reservoir sands and non-reservoir muds. Main reservoir bodies of the McMurray Formation are fluvial and estuarine channel-point bar complexes which are interbedded with fine-grained deposits formed in floodplain, tidal flat, and estuarine bay. The Wabiskaw deposits (basal member of the Clearwater Formation) commonly comprise sheet-shaped offshore muds and sands, but occasionally show deep-incision into the McMurray deposits, forming channelized reservoir sand bodies of oil sands. In Canada, bitumen of oil sands deposits is produced by surface mining or in-situ thermal recovery processes. Bitumen sands recovered by surface mining are changed into synthetic crude oil through extraction and upgrading processes. On the other hand, bitumen produced by in-situ thermal recovery is transported to refinery only through bitumen blending process. The in-situ thermal recovery technology is represented by Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage and Cyclic Steam Stimulation. These technologies are based on steam injection into bitumen sand reservoirs for increase in reservoir in-situ temperature and in bitumen mobility. In oil sands reservoirs, efficiency for steam propagation is controlled mainly by reservoir geology. Accordingly, understanding of geological factors and characteristics of oil sands reservoir deposits is prerequisite for well-designed development planning and effective bitumen production. As significant geological factors and characteristics in oil sands reservoir deposits, this study suggests (1) pay of bitumen sands and connectivity, (2) bitumen content and saturation, (3) geologic structure, (4) distribution of mud baffles and plugs, (5) thickness and lateral continuity of mud interbeds, (6) distribution of water-saturated sands, (7) distribution of gas-saturated sands, (8) direction of lateral accretion of point bar, (9) distribution of diagenetic layers and nodules, and (10) texture and fabric change within reservoir sand body.

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