Over last 5 - 6 years anchoring of floating and fixed structures have to an increasing extent been done with suction anchors much quicker installation cost effective reliable design procedures require reliable soil parameters for optimal design of suction anchor dimensions
Suction pile
Tension Leg Platform Taut Leg Platform
upper chain
Driven pile
risers tendons risers fibre rope subsea manifold
Fluke anchor
Basic principle
pump skid
recover pump skid by umbilical monitoring verticality, diff. pressure & penetration
1
ground chain
Suction pile
Investigation for suction anchorsresults form combined borehole with CPTU and sampling
Index shear strength From CPT U using NKT=13.5
Suction piles
Gulf of Mexico Deep Mediterranean NW Africa Columbus Amazon West Africa
Suction piles
Suction piles
Barong Tarajam East India NW Shelf
24
Houston
22 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6
Suction piles
Campos Basin
Suction piles
Suction piles
New Zealand
4 2
1500 ton
0m
10
20
30
40 80 60 40 0m 20
Downtown Houston
Downtown Houston
Suction piles Suction piles
Suction Pile
Pump skid
8 6 4 2 0 -2 -4 -6 -8 -10 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
30 28 30 28 26 24 22 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2m 30 28 26 24 22 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2m 30 28 26 24 22 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2m
30 28 26 24 22 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2m
30 28 26 24 22 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2m
26 24 22 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2m
seabed
30 28 26 24 22 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2m
30 28
19 20
30 28 26
30 28 26 24 22 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2m
24 24 22 22 20 20 18 18
26 24 22 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2m
24 22 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2m
Weight penetration
16 16 14 14 12 12 10 10 8 8 6 6 4 4 2 2
14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28
Allowable suction
L/D = 2.5
L/D = 5
L/D = 10
Required suction
Pre-installed conductors
19 20 21 22
Pr ed ict e
Pr te ic ed d we lo nd ou rb
0 -20 -40 -60
4.0
Penetration (m)
23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
bo un d
Penetration (m )
du pp er
5.0
6.0
CPT B
7.0
8.0
CPT A
9.0 Predicted under pressure for penetration
10.0
CPT C
0 -50 -100 -150 -200 -250
-300
-350
-400
-450
ROV