Foundations for Offshore Structures

Offshore structures are the structures secured on the sea bottom through deep foundation

systems, built as gravity type structures, or as floating production facilities. They are large

structures with facilities for well drilling to explore, extract, store, and process petroleum and

natural gas that lies in rock formations beneath the seabed. The most basic requirement for

offshore exploration activities is a platform/structure from which the whole operation can be run.

Site investigations for offshore structures are necessary to acquire data that will facilitate

successful foundation design, site or route selection, choice of foundation type, dimensioning,

installation and operational integrity of the proposed structure (ISSMGE, 2005). Geotechnical

parameters are developed from laboratory tests performed on piston samples or from high-

quality push soil samples and from in situ test data collected from cone penetration tests with

pore pressure measurements or field vane, T-bar and ball probe tests.

Offshore structures are generally classified into two categories, which are Fixed Structures and

Floating Structures.

Fixed Structures

Fixed Structures are bottom or deck supported by legs directly connected onto the seabed

foundations. They can be tubular steel jackets, concrete or hybrid gravity structures. Steel jackets

are primarily pile supported, while gravity structures achieve stability by virtue of their immense

structural weight and large diameter base. Additional stability may be provided by use of base

skirts, which penetrate several meters into the seabed. However, the limitation of this kind of

structures is related with economic issues; therefore, they are not used in water depths greater
than 500 m. Fixed structures are further sub-categorized as Steel jacket, Concrete gravity

structure, Tower foundation, Compliant tower and Monotower.

Steel jacket - The Steel template type structure consists of a tall vertical section made of tubular

steel members supported by piles driven into the sea bed with a deck placed on top, providing

space for crew quarters, a drilling rig, and production facilities. The fixed platform is

economically feasible for installation in water depths up to 500m. These template type structures

will be fixed to seabed by means of tubular piles either driven through legs of the jacket (main

piles) or through skirt sleeves attached to the bottom of the jacket. The principle behind the fixed

platform design is to minimize the natural period of the structure below 4 seconds to avoid

resonant behaviour with the waves (period in the order of 4 to 25 seconds. The structural and

foundation configuration shall be selected to achieve this concept.

Figure 9.1. Traditional Large Steel Jacket Plate

The tower is also a welded tubular space frame with three or more near vertical tubular chord

legs with a bracing system between the legs. The tower provides support for the topsides,

conductors, risers and other appurtenances. A tower foundation usually includes cluster piles

which are inserted through and connected to sleeves around the corner legs at the base of the

structure (Figure 9.2). Additional piles, called skirt piles, can be inserted through and connected

to sleeves at the base and along the perimeter of the structure. As an alternative to piles, a tower

can be supported by another foundation system that supports it at its base, such as bucket

foundations. Cluster and skirt piles, or other foundation system, anchor the structure and transfer

both vertical and horizontal actions to the seabed. The global behavior of a tower is that of a

vertical cantilever with all actions being transferred to the foundation system at the base of the

tower.

Figure 9.2. Foundation Tower

A compliant tower is a flexible structure with flex elements (principally flexible legs or axial

tubes) to control mass and stiffness characteristics to mitigate the effects of periodic wind, wave

and current forces. Natural periods are usually greater than 25 sec so they are generally well

outside wave periods. They consist of a narrow, flexible tower and a piled foundation that can

support a conventional deck for drilling and production operations. Unlike the other fixed

platforms, the compliant tower withstands large lateral forces by sustaining significant lateral

deflections, and is usually used in water depths between 300m and 600m. Compliant towers are

relatively slender compared with jacket/tower structures but have higher installation costs and

use a considerable amount of steel. They can support a large number of wells (> 40), with dry

trees, and can sustain a large payload

Figure 9.3. Compliant Tower

A monotower is a fixed structure in which the whole structure, or at least the upper part of the

structure, consists of a single vertical column (tubular or framed) that carries the topsides.

Where the monotower consists of a single vertical column over its full height that continues into

the seabed as the foundation pile, this is described as a ‘free-standing caisson’ or simply

‘caisson’. A ‘braced caisson’ is a monotower where the lower part of the column is laterally
supported by one or more inclined braces between the column and one or more foundation piles.

Monotowers are designed to be unmanned or not normally manned.

Figure 9.4. A Monotower

Concrete gravity platforms are mostly used in the areas where feasibility of pile installation is

remote. These platforms are very common in areas with strong seabed geological conditions

either with rock outcrop or sandy formation. Some part of North Sea oil fields and Australian

coast, these kind of platforms are located. The concrete gravity platform by its name derive its

horizontal stability against environmental forces by means of its weight. These structures are

basically concrete shells assembled in circular array with stem columns projecting to above

water to support the deck and facilities. Concrete gravity platforms have been constructed in

water depths as much as 350m.

 Condeep built

The Ninian Platform

Figure 9.5. Concrete Gravity Platforms

Floating Structures.

Floating structures must have enough buoyancy to support the weight of the turbine and to

restrain pitch, roll, and heave motions within acceptable limits. The most important loads to

consider are wind turbine thrust, wave loads, wind turbine torque and drift forces. There are

some key differences in the load characteristics of floating wind turbines to that of floating oil

rigs. While floating oil rigs and payload and wave driven, floating wind turbine loads are

primarily wind-driven overturning moments.

Many floating concepts are easier to construct and install than fixed structures – the

decommissioning process is easier as well. However, floating support structures have several key

challenges to overcome, one of which is turbine stability. Floating structures must be designed in

a way that they can support wind turbines in the megawatt class, while minimizing turbine and

wave-induced motion. The added complexity in the design process, including understanding the

coupling between the support structure and the wind turbine is another hurdle the industry must

overcome. The common types of floating structures are:

A tension-leg platform (TLP) or extended tension leg platform (ETLP') is a vertically

moored floating structure normally used for the offshore production of oil or gas, and is

particularly suited for water depths greater than 300 m and less than 1500 m. Use of tension-leg

platforms has also been proposed for wind turbines.

The platform is permanently moored by means of tethers or tendons grouped at each of the

structure's corners. A group of tethers is called a tension leg. A feature of the design of the

tethers is that they have relatively high axial stiffness (low elasticity), such that virtually all

vertical motion of the platform is eliminated. This allows the platform to have the production
wellheads on deck (connected directly to the subsea wells by rigid risers), instead of on the

seafloor. This allows a simpler well completion and gives better control over the production from

the oil or gas reservoir, and easier access for downhole intervention operations.

Figure 9.6. Tension leg platform

Spar (Single Point Anchor Reservoir) is a type of floating oil platform typically used in very

deep waters, and is named for logs used as buoys in shipping that are moored in place vertically.

Spar production platforms have been developed as an alternative to conventional platforms. The

deep draft design of spars makes them less affected by wind, wave and currents and allows for

both dry tree and subsea production.

A spar platform consists of a large-diameter, single vertical cylinder supporting a deck. The

cylinder is weighted at the bottom by a chamber filled with a material that is denser than water

(to lower the center of gravity of the platform below its centre of buoyancy, providing stability).

Additionally, the spar hull is encircled by helical strakes to mitigate the effects of vortex-induced

motion. Spars are permanently anchored to the seabed by way of a spread mooring system

composed of either a chain-wire-chain or chain-polyester-chain configuration.

There are three primary types of spars; the classic spar, truss spar, and cell spar. The classic

spar consists of the cylindrical hull noted above, with heavy ballast tanks located at the bottom of

the cylinder.

Figure 9.7: Mad dog Spar Platform

A semi-submersible foundation is a type of floating wind foundation that is partly submerged

to provide station keeping and stability. It typically comprises a submerged hull typically

pontoon-type columns joint together with the foundation by large tubulars. The benefit with the

semi-sub is to avoid large wave loads by having the smaller tubulars in the splash zone.

Figure 9.8. Semi-Submersible Platform

A Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit is a floating vessel used by the

offshore oil and gas industry for the processing of hydrocarbons and for the storage of oil or

natural gas. Ship-shaped FPSOs are by far the most widely used type of floating production unit,

accounting for over 100 deployments globally. As operators are moving into deeper waters,

FPSOs are continuing their popularity as the most cost-effective units. Design, maintenance and

inspection of ship-shaped FPSOs have drawn upon the extensive experiences from tankers. The

major difference between a trading tanker and an FPSO moored at a specific location is that dry-
docking for inspections would be more complicated, and usually not possible, for FPSOs that

need to be stationary at the offshore site.

Figure 9.9. Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) Platform

Foundations for Telecommunication Tower

Telecommunication towers are multistory structures usually constructed of steel. The height is

much higher than the length and width of the structure. Therefore because of the height, it is

usually subjected to wind load and little axial load. Because of the wind load, they are subjected

to horizontal forces which tend to overcome the telecommunication towers. The foundations are

usually subjected to uplift loads.

For stable tower structure, the restraining moment due to self-weight of the structure and soil

must be greater than the overturning (uplifting) moment due to horizontal and uplift loads,

otherwise the structure will collapse. Hence, the tower has higher tendency to fail by uplifting rather

than failed by bearing, sliding and other failures.

Figure 9.9. Forces on Telecommunication Tower