Abstract

Suction caissons are widely used in mooring systems for deep water oil and gas development projects. The response of a caisson in sand is different from its response in clay under pullout force. In this study, three-dimensional finite element (FE) analyses are conducted to calculate the pullout capacity of a suction caisson subjected to various oblique loadings. The FE modeling is performed using Abaqus FE software. In the mooring systems, the caisson could have a significant movement and rotation before reaching to the maximum pullout force. Therefore, the Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) method available in the Abaqus/Explicit is used in the present FE analysis to avoid numerical issues due to excessive mesh distortion at large displacements that typically encountered in the FE formulations in the Lagrangian framework. The sand around the caisson is modeled using the Mohr-Coulomb model. The effects of key variables, such as loading angle, mooring position and aspect ratio, on pullout capacity and rotation of the caisson are presented. The comparison between FE and centrifuge test results is also shown.

Keywords:
modeling, pullout capacity, centrifuge test result, installation, inclination angle, international offshore, displacement, subsea system, suction caisson, engineering
Subjects:
Offshore Facilities and Subsea Systems, Information Management and Systems, Mooring systems
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2014. International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers
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