Wandoo B: Application of Advance Reinforced Concrete Assessment for Life Extension for Non-Jacket Structures

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Sheppard ◽  
Colin O’Brien ◽  
Yashar Moslehy ◽  
Rachel Roberts

Abstract Wandoo B is a concrete Gravity Base Structure (GBS) and is the main production facility for the Wandoo field offshore NW Australia. It was installed in 1997 with a design life of 20 years. The structural assessments discussed in this paper are part of a comprehensive life extension project encompassing wells, subsea systems, marine and safety systems, topsides facilities and structures to demonstrate fitness for service through the end of field life (EOFL). The challenge was to demonstrate compliance efficiently and effectively for a large structure with a range of materials (steel, reinforced concrete (RC)) and operations supported (oil storage, drilling, production) under increased loading criteria compared to the original design. There is comprehensive industry guidance for assessing existing steel jacket structures, but far less for a concrete GBS such as Wandoo B. Demonstrating compliance required a combination of computer model results, project-specific tools to check reinforced concrete sections, and engineering judgement to define how much damage constitutes failure. A number of global and local structural models were developed to assess the linear and nonlinear performance of the reinforced concrete and steel structure. A phased approach was employed using basic, conservative approaches in initial phases to demonstrate code compliance, and progressing to more advanced, less conservative approaches for those components under higher stress. Developing models that more accurately simulate the behavior of the different structural components and materials was a large part of the project scope, particularly for the nonlinear behavior of the reinforced concrete and the interface connections between the steel and reinforced concrete structures. It was inefficient to develop a detailed steel and reinforced concrete solid model of the large GBS shafts and base, so an equivalent shell model was developed and tested to determine the global behavior and onset of damage. This equivalent model aimed to predict behavior accurately for metocean and seismic loads under material tension and compression. Local detailed models were then developed including a constitutive model of reinforced concrete and used to define the extent of the damage and predict where failure would occur.

2021 ◽  
Vol 73 (09) ◽  
pp. 53-54
Author(s):  
Chris Carpenter

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper OTC 31250, “Wandoo B: Application of Advanced Reinforced Concrete Assessment for Life Extension for Non-Jacket Structures,” by Robert Sheppard, Spire Engineering; Colin O’Brien, Vermilion Oil and Gas; and Yashar Moslehy, Spire Engineering, et al., prepared for the 2021 Offshore Technology Conference, originally scheduled to be held in Houston, 4–7 May. The paper has not been peer reviewed. Copyright 2021 Offshore Technology Conference. Reproduced by permission. Wandoo B is a concrete gravity-based structure (GBS) and is the main production facility for the Wandoo field offshore northwest Australia. It was installed in 1997 with a design life of 20 years. The structural assessments discussed in this paper are part of a comprehensive life-extension project encompassing wells, subsea systems, marine and safety systems, and topsides facilities and structures to demonstrate fitness for service through the end of field life. Background The GBS serves as the support structure for the Wandoo B facility and provides oil storage for the Wandoo field. The structure has four shafts approximately 11 m in diameter that support the top-sides facilities and a base structure with permanent ballast and oil storage cells (Fig. 1). It was originally developed as an ExxonMobil-led project and now is owned and operated wholly by Vermilion Oil and Gas Australia. The reinforced concrete (RC) shafts and the base top slab are pretensioned. In the shafts, tendons are enclosed in 20 ducts distributed around the circumference. The top of the shafts provides a mating point with the steel topsides structure with the connection formed by embedded anchor bolts in a bulge in the shaft cross section. The topsides structure is a three-level braced steel frame system supporting production operations for 12 well conductors contained within the northeast shaft and three outboard well conductors. Life-Extension Project The facility was designed with a target life of 20 years. The life-extension project was intended not only to satisfy the operator’s responsibility to continue safe operations and adhere to their safety case but also to meet the expectations of the regulator. The structural aspects of the project included four phases, the first two of which are detailed in this synopsis: - Design assessments per latest standards and modifications where required - Ultimate capacity assessments with retrofit modifications where required - Risk studies and workshops to demonstrate that risk is as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP) - Integrity-management manual and inspection plan The first two phases were addressed using the latest condition-assessment, weight, and environmental data available. The phased approach allowed the assessment team to use basic linear approaches to demonstrate code compliance and only use the more-advanced analysis techniques to evaluate the critical components that did not satisfy code or were needed to provide input to the ALARP assessment and establish target reliability for the facility.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (59) ◽  
pp. 232-242
Author(s):  
Cuong Le Thanh ◽  
Hoang-Le Minh ◽  
Thanh Sang-To

The reinforced concrete structure is typical and widely used in many fields. The behavior of concrete is nonlinear and complex. Especially, when cracks/crushings occurred in softening phase. Thus, It is important to find a damaged model of concrete with high reliability in the numerical simulation. The nonlinear behavior of concrete is the most feature used in the simulation. This characteristic is expressed through the parameters defining the yield surface, the flow potential, and the nonlinear relationship of stress-strain in the cases of tension and compression. This paper introduces a damaged concrete model that applies to the simulation of reinforced concrete structures. The reinforced concrete beam and flat slab are selected as examples to evaluate the reliability of the model presented. Through the results achieved, the model used in this paper shows high reliability and can be used to simulate more complex reinforced concrete structures.


2018 ◽  
Vol 84 (12) ◽  
pp. 61-67
Author(s):  
V. A. Eryshev

The mechanical properties of a complex composite material formed by steel and hardened concrete, are studied. A technique of operative quality control of new credible concrete and reinforcement, both in laboratory and field conditions is developed for determination of the strength and strain characteristics of materials, as well as cohesion forces determining their joint operation under load. The design of the mobile unit is presented. The unit provides a possibility of changing the direction of loading and testing the reinforced element of the given shape both for tension and compression. Moreover, the nomenclature of testing equipment and the number of molds for manufacturing concrete samples substantially decrease. Using the values of forcing resulting in concrete cracking when the joint work of concrete and reinforcement is disrupted the values of the inherent stresses and strains attributed to the concrete shrinkage are determined. An analytical relationship between the forces and deformations of the reinforced concrete sample with central reinforcement is derived for axial tension and compression, with allowance for strains and stresses in the reinforcement and concrete resulted from concrete shrinkage. The results of experimental studies are presented, including tension diagrams and diagrams of developing axial deformations with an increase in the load under the central loading of the reinforced elements. A methodology of accounting for stresses and deformations resulted from concrete shrinkage is developed. The applicability of the derived analytical relationships between stresses and deformations on the material diagrams to calculations of the reinforced concrete structures in the framework of the deformation model is estimated.


1983 ◽  
Vol 73 (5) ◽  
pp. 1435-1450
Author(s):  
Andrzej S. Nowak ◽  
Elizabeth L. M. Rose

Abstract This paper deals with the evaluation of seismic risk for commercial buildings in Memphis, Tennessee. The seismicity of the area is summarized, and commercial buildings are divided into categories with regard to parameters such as number of stories, year of construction, assessed value, total floor area, and structural type. The distributions of these parameters are presented in the figures. During the study, over 15 buildings were examined on site by a team of experts to evaluate their seismic resistances. The quality of the design, materials, and construction was found to be surprisingly good, particularly in those structures built since 1900. Seismic resistance is analytically evaluated for five buildings: a four-story reinforced concrete frame; a four-story steel structure with vertical trusses; a 13-story stell frame; and two multi-story reinforced concrete frames. The loadings from four sources are considered: EI Centro and Taft earthquakes in California (1940 and 1952, respectively) and the forces specified in the 1979 UBC and 1981 BOCA codes. Ratios of load to capacity are calculated. For each building considered, the expected percentage of damage is evaluated for the two earthquakes. The damage prediction is extended to all commercial buildings in Memphis.


1977 ◽  
Vol 67 (5) ◽  
pp. 1441-1472
Author(s):  
R. Husid ◽  
A. F. Espinosa ◽  
J. de las Casas

abstract The October 3, 1974, earthquake caused severe damage to buildings of adobe and quincha construction, and also to masonry, reinforced masonry, and reinforced-concrete structures in Lima and vicinity. Most of the damage to well-built structures was due, in part, to the lack of lateral resistance in the original design and to the fact that this earthquake had more energy around 0.4 seconds period than prior destructive earthquakes. Water tanks on the roofs of structures with four or five stories were damaged. Well-engineered single-story buildings were less affected than taller structures. Considerable structural damage to reinforced-concrete structures occurred in the districts of Barranco, La Campiña Molina, and Callao. In La Campiña three-story building partly collapsed and other buildings sustained considerable damage. In La Molina, the buildings of the Agrarian University sustained severe damage, and some collapsed. In Surco, the district adjacent to La Molina, there was no appreciable damage. In Callao, a four-story building collapsed, and the upper half of a concrete silo collapsed. In reinforced-concrete structures, column ties were frequently small in diameter, widely spaced, and not well connected. Usually, the reinforcement of resisting elements had no relation to their stiffnesses. Front columns in school buildings were restrained by high brick walls and had rather short effective lengths to allow building displacement in that direction. The windows in the rear walls gave the rear columns a much greater effective length. Therefore, a longitudinal displacement induces large shear forces in the front columns where most of the severe damage occurred. This problem was not considered in the design of these structures.


Author(s):  
J. Rosen ◽  
D. Johnstone ◽  
P. Sincock ◽  
A. E. Potts ◽  
D. Hourigan

Life extension and asset integrity of Floating Production Unit (FPU) moorings are issues of increasing importance for operators due to changing production requirements, the requirement to extend service life, and circumstances where the met-ocean Basis of Design (BOD) has increased significantly over the life of the field. Reliability methods are gaining increasing acceptance as increased computing power allows large numbers of simulations to be undertaken using realistic fully coupled models that are validated against prior experiments. When applied to the re-qualification and life extension of FPU moorings, particularly with regard to re-qualification and life extension of in-place moorings, reliability analysis offers considerable advantages over conventional deterministic return period design. This paper details the application of a reliability approach to re-qualification and life extension of a turret-moored FPU that had design met-ocean conditions increased significantly over the life of the field. It explores key elements of reliability analysis including the probabilistic characterisation of met-ocean conditions, adequate representation of vessel dynamics and mooring loads in a Response Surface Model, and a selection of algorithms to solve for the system probability of failure. Discussion points include the advantages of the explicit identification of the most likely failure scenario versus uncertainty as to whether the worst design case has been identified, and the potential for rapid reassessment of reliability for specific design conditions (such as a degraded mooring system or a system for which degradation is ongoing). The results of this study demonstrate the significant advantages to the industry conferred by adopting reliability methods in the re-certification and life extension of existing FPU moorings. In particular, the study highlights that conventional mooring code deterministic design methods, whilst adequate for original design purposes, lack sufficient fidelity to address the multi-faceted issue of re-assessment of notionally marginal legacy systems. For a degraded existing mooring, an application of these methods can demonstrate that the level of reliability of the system is still acceptable, whereas a conventional approach may produce an over-conservative indication that the mooring is non-compliant. Applicable to a wide range of FPUs requiring re-qualification or life extension, the techniques discussed also provide pointers to more efficient and reliable mooring design for not just existing, but also for new FPUs.


Author(s):  
John V. Sharp ◽  
Edmund G. Terry ◽  
John Wintle

Many offshore installations in the North Sea have now exceeded their original design life and are in a life extension phase. A Framework of six processes has been developed for the management of ageing of Safety Critical Elements (SCEs) in offshore installations. The processes include an analysis of the effect of ageing modes on SCE performance. Examples of performance indicators for typical SCEs are proposed based on how their condition and performance as may be affected by physical deterioration and other effects of ageing. Indicators for calibrating the maturity and effectiveness of the management processes are also suggested.


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (06) ◽  
pp. 1450013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuan Huy Nguyen

This paper presents a simplified modeling strategy for simulating the nonlinear behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) structures under seismic loadings. A new type of Euler–Bernoulli multifiber beam element with axial force and bending moment interaction is introduced. To analyze the behavior of RC structures in the axial direction, the interpolation of the axial strain is enriched using the incompatible modes method. The model uses the constitutive laws based on plasticity for steel and damage mechanics for concrete. The proposed multifiber element is implemented in the finite element Code_Aster to simulate the nonlinear behavior of two different RC structures. One structure is a building tested on a shaking table; the other is a column subjected to cyclic loadings. The comparison between the simulation and experimental results shows that the performance of this approach is quite good. The proposed model can be used to investigate the behavior of a wider variety of configurations which are impossible to study experimentally.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Ante Džolan

Concrete is a material with highly nonlinear behavior. In parallel, there are numerous secondary effects in concrete, such as aging, shrinkage, and creep, which further complicate the realistic simulation of reinforced concrete and prestressed concrete structures. In modern times, due to bolder construction, increasing spans and high rising construction, the need for realistic simulation of the behavior of concrete structures under conditions of various types of loads is becoming more pronounced. On the other hand, models with a small number of real-life parameters that can describe the actual behavior of concrete as accurately as possible are necessary. One such model, the previously developed model Precon 3D, which is based on a small number of parameters and can very well describe the behavior of concrete, reinforced concrete and prestressed structures for short-term static loads was taken as the basis for this work. Through this work, the numerical model Precon 3D has been upgraded with a model for following the behavior of concrete during time, i.e. the model has been upgraded with a model of creep and shrinkage of concrete, which is necessary for following the behavior of prestressed structures. The developed software has been tested against several experimental examples from the literature, with a very good match between numerical and experimental results.


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