• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.288-300
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• 2015

Since the first jack-up was built, jackups have become the most popular type of mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU) for offshore exploration and development purposes in shallow water. The most pivotal component of the jack-up unit is the leg, which can directly affect the global performance of the unit. In this paper, an investigation into extending the length of the jack up leg is carried out in order to study the enhancement of the rig capability to drill in deeper water approaching the range of the Semisubmersible Drilling Unit (SSDU) (300-1000ft). A study of the performance of a deep-water jack-up unit is performed with different leg lengths. Typical leg scantling dimensions and identical external loads are assigned, and then a detailed Finite Element Analysis (FEA) model is created in order to simulate the jack-up leg unit's structural behavior. A Multi-point Constraint (MPC) element together with the spring element is used to deal with the boundary conditions. Finally, a comparative analysis for five leg lengths is carried out to illustrate their performance, including the ultimate static strength, and weight.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.601-609
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• 2022

Jack-up drilling rigs are mobile offshore platforms widely used in the offshore oil and gas exploration industry. These are independent, three-legged, self-elevating units with a cantilevered drilling facility for drilling and production. A typical jack-up rig includes a triangular hull, a tower derrick, a cantilever, a jackcase, living quarters and legs which comprise three-chord, open-truss, X-braced structure with a spudcan. Generally, jack-up rigs can only operate in water depths ranging from 130m to 170m. Recently, there has been an increasing demand for jack-up rigs for operating at deeper water levels and harsher environmental conditions such as waves, currents and wind loads. All static and dynamic loads are supported through legs in the jack-up mode. The most important issue by society is to secure the safety of the leg structure against collision that causes large instantaneous impact energy. In this study, nonlinear FE -analysis and verification of the requirement against collision for 35MJ recommended by DNV was performed using LS-Dyna software. The colliding ship used a 7,500ton of shore supply vessel, and five scenarios of collisions were selected. From the results, all conditions do not satisfy the class requirement of 35MJ. The loading conditions associated with chord collision are reasonable collision energy of 15M and brace collisions are 6MJ. Therefore, it can be confirmed that the identical collision criteria by DNV need to be modified based on collision scenarios and colliding members.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.103-113
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• 2020

Jack-up drilling rigs are widely used in the offshore oil and gas exploration industry. Although originally designed for use in shallow waters, trends in the energy industry have led to a growing demand for their use in deep sea and harsh environmental conditions. To extend the operating range of jack-up units, their design must be based on reliable analysis while eliminating excessive conservatism. In current industrial practice, jack-up drilling rigs are designed using the working(or allowable) stress design (WSD) method. Recently, classifications have been developed for specific regulations based on the load and resistance factor design (LRFD) method, which emphasises the reliability of the methods. This statistical method utilises the concept of limit state design and uses factored loads and resistance factors to account for uncertainly in the loads and computed strength of the leg components in a jack-up drilling rig. The key differences between the LRFD method and the WSD method must be identified to enable appropriate use of the LRFD method for designing jack-up rigs. Therefore, the aim of this study is to compare and quantitatively investigate the differences between actual jack-up lattice leg structures, which are designed by the WSD and LRFD methods, and subject to different environmental load-to-dead-load ratios, thereby delineating the load-to-capacity ratios of rigs designed using theses methods under these different enviromental conditions. The comparative results are significantly advantageous in the leg design of jack-up rigs, and determine that the jack-up rigs designed using the WSD and LRFD methods with UC values differ by approximately 31 % with respect to the API-RP code basis. It can be observed that the LRFD design method is more advantageous to structure optimization compared to the WSD method.

• Bulletin of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.39-46
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• 2017

Jack-up drilling rigs are widely used in offshore oil and gas exploration industry. It is originally designed for use in the shallow waters less than 60m of water depth; there is growing demand for their use in deeper water depth over 150m and harsher environmental conditions. In this study, global in-place analysis of jack-up rig leg for North-sea oil well is performed through numerical analysis. Firstly, environmental conditions and seabed characteristics at the North-sea are collected and investigated measurements from survey report. Based on these data, design specifications are established and the overall basic design is performed. Dynamic characteristics of the jack-up rig for North-sea are considered in the global in-place analysis both leg and hull and the basic stability against overturning moment is also analyzed. The structural integrity of the jack-up rig leg/hull is verified through the code checks and the adequate safety margin is observed. The uncertainty in jack-up behaviour is greatly influenced by the uncertainties in the soil characteristics that determine the resistance of the foundation to the forces imposed by the jack-up structure. Among the risks above mentioned, the punch-through during pre-loading is the most frequently encountered foundation problem for jack-up rigs. The objective of this paper is to clarify the detailed structure and installation engineering matters for prove the structural safety of jack-up rigs during operation. With this intention the following items are addressed; - Characteristics of structural behavior considering soil effect against environmental loads - Modes of failure and related pre-loading procedure and parameters - Typical results of structural engineering and verification by actual measurement.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.241-257
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• 2020

The rapid proliferation of oil/gas drilling and wind turbine installations with jack-up rig-formed structures increases structural safety requirements, due to the greater risks of operational collisions during use of these structures. Therefore, current industrial practices and regulations have tended to increase the required accidental collision design loads (impact energies) for jack-up rigs. However, the existing simplified design approach tends to be limited to the design and prediction of local members due to the difficulty in applying the increased uniform impact energy to a brace member without regard for the member's position. It is therefore necessary to define accidental load estimation in terms of a reasonable collision scenario and its application to the structural response analysis. We found by a collision probabilistic approach that the kinetic energy ranged from a minimum of 9 MJ to a maximum 1049 MJ. Only 6% of these values are less than the 35 MJ recommendation of DNV-GL (2013). This study assumed and applied a representative design load of 196.2 MN for an impact load of 20,000 tons. Based on this design load, the detailed design of a leg structure was numerically verified via an FE analysis comprising three categories: linear analysis, buckling analysis and progressive collapse analysis. Based on the numerical results from this analysis, it was possible to predict the collapse mode and position of each member in relation to the collision load. This study provided a collision strength assessment between attendant vessels and a jack-up rig based on probabilistic collision scenarios and nonlinear structural analysis. The numerical results of this study also afforded reasonable evaluation criteria and specific evaluation procedures.