Jacking Operation Elements

Section 1 Legs
1.1 Introduction:
Legs are steel structures that support the hull when the unit is in the Elevated mode and provide
stability to resist lateral loads.
The legs of a Jack up Unit may extend over 500 ft. above the surface of the water when the unit is
being towed with the legs fully retracted. (Ex: Noble Lloyd Noble Jack-up rig with 700 ft (213.36
m) and Maersk Invincible Jack-up rig with 678 ft. (206.8 m)
Depending on size and length, the legs usually have the most detrimental impact on the afloat
stability of the Unit.
The heavy weight at a high center of gravity and the large wind area of the legs combine to
dramatically affect the unit's afloat stability. For units of the same hull configuration and draft, the
unit with the larger legs will have less afloat stability.
When in the Elevated Mode, the legs of a Jack up Unit are subjected to wind, wave, and current
loadings. In addition to the specifics of the environment, the magnitude and proportion of these
loads is a function of the water depth, air gap (distance from the water line to the hull baseline)
and the distance the footings penetrate into the seabed. Generally, the larger the legs and footings,
the more load wind, wave, and current will exert on them.
Legs of different design and size exhibit different levels of lateral stiffness (amount of load needed
to produce a unit deflection). Jack Up stiffness decreases with increase in water depth (or more
precisely, with the distance from the support footing to the hull/leg connection); the more difficult
it is to bend it, the higher the flexural stiffness.
Furthermore, for deeper water depths, flexural stiffness (chord area and spacing) overshadows the
effects of shear stiffness (brace).
Legs provide elevation of the hull above the storm wave crest; withstand wave, current, and wind
loads; and to transmit operational, environmental, and gravity loads between the hull and footings.

1.2 Legs types and arrangements:

1.2.1 Types:
1. Cylindrical legs (Figure 1)
Are hollow steel tubes. They may have rack teeth or holes in the shell to permit jacking of the hull
up and down the legs
Advantages:
 Cylindrical legs are for units that operate in shallow water as these units are normally
smaller and have less deck area. Cylindrical legs take up less deck area.
 Generally less complicated, requiring less experience to construct than lattice legs.
Disadvantages:
 Cylindrical legs are usually found on units operating in water depths less than 300 feet.
 Cylindrical legs require more steel to provide the same resistance to environmental loads
and provide the same elevated response as truss (lattice legged Units).

Figure 1 - Cylindrical Leg rig

2. Lattice legs (Figure 2)
 Consist of chords and braces. These braces provide the shear capacity of the leg and
these chords provide the axial and flexural stiffness.
 One of the main benefits of the lattice legs is that they allow for optimal steel utilization
and result in lighter stiffer legs with reduced drag loads.
 If water depth is more than 300 ft, units with lattice legs have to be used.

Figure 2 - Lattice Leg rig

 1.2.2 Legs arrangements:
1. Three-Legged Jack-up unit:
Three legs are the minimum required for stability, arranged in a triangular form. (Figure 3)
Advantages:
 They completely eliminate the need to build extra legs.
 Furthermore, for a given hull size, they can carry more deck load in the afloat mode, and
usually have a reduced number of elevating units (pinions, cylinders, etc.), resulting in
reduced power/maintenance requirements, and less weight.
Disadvantages:
 Include the fact that they require preload tankage
 Have no leg redundancy.

Figure 1-Three Legged Unit

2. Four-Legged Jack-up unit:
Units with 4-legs usually have the legs arranged in some rectangular form. (Figure 4)
Advantages:
 Require little or no preload tanks on board. This is because four-legged Units can preload
two legs at a time using the elevated weight as preload weight.
 This results in a savings of piping and equipment weights, and more usable space within
the hull.
 Because of the 4th leg, these units are stiffer in the elevated mode than a three-legged Unit.
Disadvantages:
 The additional leg adds wind, wave and current loads.
  In the afloat transit mode, the fourth leg is a disadvantage as its weight causes a direct
reduction in the afloat deck load when compared to an equivalent three-legged unit.

Figure 2-Four Legged Unit

1.2.3 Lattice Legs variations:
Three-Chorded Legs versus Four-Chorded Legs:
 Trussed legs have either 3 or 4 main vertical structural members called chords.(Figure 5)
 All trussed-leg Jack up Units operating today have one of these chord arrangements.
 In essence, the benefits and disadvantages of three-chorded versus four-chorded legs are
comparable in nature to those of three- and four-legged Jack Ups (i.e., overall weight/drag
loads and redundancy), except that they do not affect preloading procedures in any way.
These chords are connected together by a system of horizontal and diagonal braces,
normally made of circular cross-sections. These connections can be designed against
overload and fatigue.

Figure 3- Three-Chorded Legs versus Four-Chorded Legs

Gear racks are an integral part of the chords. (Figure 6) shows two common cross-sections of
chords - “one side rack” and “opposed rack”.

Figure 4 Cross-sections of chords racks

Racks are normally cut from very high strength steel (Fy > 90 ksi). Braces are made of high
strength steels (Fy ≈ 80 ksi).
The factors to consider in designing a brace would be:
a) High buckling stresses
b) Low hydrodynamic drag
c) High tensile strength
d) Optimal section modulus
e) Feasibility for rolling
f) Feasibility weldability.
Due to high stresses induced into the lower braces during tow and possibility of eccentric loading
on the spud can; these braces will be heavier and sometimes would be of built-up I or H sections.
Legs are subjected to the following forces:
1. Elevated condition:
a) Compression forces due to gravity loads on the hull.
b) Compression forces due to the reactive couple caused by overturning moments on the
jack-up.
c) Bending moments at the hull due to the horizontal displacement of the hull and the
moment connection between the leg and the hull.
 d) Horizontal forces on the leg due to wave, current and wind action. These forces are
usually considered as collinear.
e) Bending moments due to P-Δ effect on the leg.
f) High local stresses due to force transfer and from the pinions. “Rack chocks, hull upper
and lower guides”.
g) Fatigue causing cyclic stresses due to constant wave action on the legs. Static and
Fatigue analysis of welded tubular jack-up leg connections can be performed in the
same manner defined for the fixed offshore platforms described in ( section 6 –
Handbook of offshore engineering Vol 1 )
2. Afloat condition:
a) Gravity loads on the leg.
b) Wind force.
c) Inertia forces due to vessel motions.
d) Restraining reactions from guide units or other locking devices in the hull that create
high moments in the leg.
e) Fatigue causing cyclic stresses in the lower bays of the legs due to the constant pitch
and roll motions of the floating vessel. Static and Fatigue analysis of welded tubular
jack-up leg connections can be performed in the same manner defined for the fixed
offshore platforms described in ( section 6 – Handbook of offshore engineering Vol 1)
f) Effect of different leg positions on the legs and hull