PETROLEUM EXPLORATION AND DEVELOPMENT

Volume 38, Issue 5, October 2011

Online English edition of the Chinese language journal

Cite this article as: PETROL. EXPLOR. DEVELOP., 2011, 38(5): 613–619. RESEARCH PAPER

Spudcan bearing capacity calculation of the offshore

jack-up drilling platform during the preloading process
Zhang Puyang1,2,*, Yu Xiaoyang3, Ding Hongyan1,2
1. School of Civil Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China;
2. Key Laboratory of Coast Civil Structure Safety (Tianjin University), Ministry of Education, Tianjin 300072, China;
3. State Nuclear Electric Power Planning Design & Research Institute, Beijing 100094, China

Abstract: To predict the penetration depth of the offshore jack-up drilling platform during the preloading process, the fluid-solid cou-
pling theory was introduced to establish the finite element model of the soil-spudcan system in saturated clay. With this model, the spud-
can bearing capacity factor was numerically calculated when spudcans penetrated into homogeneous and heterogeneous clay. The results
show that, the spudcan bearing capacity factor is mainly decided by soil strength and spudcan penetration depth: for soil with lower
strength heterogeneous coefficient, the spudcan bearing factor has a positive correlation with the spudcan penetration depth, while for soil
with higher strength heterogeneous coefficients, the correlation is negative. When the spudcan penetration depth is about 20 m, the
maximum bearing capacity factor of spudcan is 10.30 (not consider soil backflow) and 12.25 (consider soil backflow), respectively. The
calculation method for spudcan bearing capacity during the preloading process was given. With this method, the penetration depth of
spudcan under certain soil condition for the Bohai No. 5 platform was calculated. Because the proposed calculation method considers the
influences of reaction between soil and spudcan, the nonlinear property of soil, end resistance at the bottom of spudcan, and lateral resis-
tance of spudcan during the whole preloading process, the predicted spudcan penetration depth is more reasonable and has a difference of
about 20% from the result of traditional calculation methods.

Key words: offshore jack-up drilling platform; spudcan; bearing capacity; soil backflow; cavity height

1 Introduction method in references [57], Nc is determined by inhomo-

geneous coefficient of soil strength (kD/cu0) and the relative
It is a critical problem for an offshore jack-up drilling plat-
penetration depth of (d/D). The bearing capacity of spudcan
form to estimate exactly the penetration depth of spudcans
may be given by changing Nc. For continuous penetration, a
under the complex geologic conditions at sea. If the penetra-
more convenient method is that, the soil strength inhomoge-
tion depth is over the safety depth, the platform maybe face
neous coefficient of the soil surface (kD/cum) and penetration
considerable damage. In the practical operation, the penetra-
ratio (d/D) are taken as variables to calculate the bearing ca-
tion depth is restricted with the limit value calculated from the
pacity in order to avoid the recalculation of kD/cu0 for each
empirical formula. However, the calculation methods can not
change of penetration depth.
avoid the phenomena of the excessive penetrating depth. In
It is shown from the on-site tests [5,8] and centrifuge ex-
view of this problem, the related research is given in this pa-
periments[911] that, soil backflow would occur when spudcans
per.
During preloading, spudcans will undergo progressive penetrated deeply into a soft clay. There are 2 situations of
penetration, and the resistance is related to 3 factors: (1) soil soil backflow affecting the bearing capacity of spudcans: (1)
strength (cu); (2) bearing capacity factor (Nc); (3) effective contributions of soil effective weight (Ȗƍ) would be counter-
overburden pressure caused by soil backflow (p0ƍ). acted partially with increasing of soil overburdened pressure
References [14] suggested that a representative cu be taken caused by soil backflow. (2) Nc would be increased with the
as the average strength over 0.51.0 diameter below the increase of shear resistance due to soil backflow into cavity
spudcan. However, the latest research shows it is more rea- above the spudcan when bearing capacity of soil is over the
sonable to predict the bearing capacity of spudcans that cu is limit.
taken as the soil strength of the penetration depth (cu0). As the The value of Nc in platform design specifications[12,13] is

Received date: 01 Apr. 2010; Revised date: 21 Apr. 2011.

* Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
Copyright © 2011, Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, PetroChina. Published by Elsevier BV. All rights reserved.
 Zhang Puyang et al. / Petroleum Exploration and Development, 2011, 38(5): 613–619

based on bearing capacity factor of strip foundation [14], which

adopts the Skempton semi-empirical calculation method [2] to
confirm the shape and penetration of spudcan affecting the
bearing capacity. However, there are obviously shortcomings
in the method, such as no full consideration of the effect of
soil strength inhomogeneous factor at the penetration on
bearing capacity of spudcans[1517].
In this paper, the fluid-solid coupling theory[18] was intro-
duced to establish the finite element model (FEM) of the
soil-spudcan system by ABAQUS. With this model, the spud-
can bearing capacity factors with the penetration depth were
Fig. 2 Profile of spudcan and pile leg with corresponding soil
numerically calculated when spudcans penetrate into homo-
geneous and heterogeneous clay. And the calculation methods Table 1 Main calculation parameters used in FEM model
for cavity height during spudcan penetration period and the
Parameters Values Parameters Values
spudcan bearing capacity under homogeneous and heteroge-
Modulus of spud-
neous clay conditions are given. Soil modulus 1528 MPa 2.1u105 MPa
can and pile leg
2 Finite element model of the soil-spudcan system Soil Poisson
0.3
Poisson ratio of
0.3
ratio spudcan and pile leg
A coupling analysis of seepage and deformation of soil was Effective Density of of spud-
4,8,10 kN/m3 7 800 kg/m3
conducted to solve the total pore pressure or excess pore weight of soil can and pile leg
pressure with Pore Fluid-Stress coupling elements by the Soil strength at
120 kPa Diameter of pile leg 13 m
Darcy law or Forchheimer law. In order to simulate effec- the seabed
tively soil effect on bearing capacity of spudcans, the pre- Gradient of soil Diameter of
0,1,2,3 kPa/m 10,15,18,20 m
loading processing and relevant parameters were numerically strength spudcan
simulated with fluid-solid coupling. The precision, error and Soil strength 15150 kPa Angle of cone 035q
Initial void ratio 0.52.5 Spudcan thickness 1.02.5 m
reliability of the method satisfy the requirements [19,20].
Soil permeabi- 0.8u1010
The boundary conditions for soil-spudcan three-dimen- Spudcan height 24 m
lity coefficient 10.0u1010 m/s
sional finite element model, shown as Fig. 1, is that horizontal
direction at soil side is constrained, fixed constraints are im-
posed on the bottom of soil, and the top at the soil is free. In inder type, as shown in Fig. 2. The specific parameters of
order to avoid boundary effect, the width of soil is taken as finite element model for spudcan bearing capacity are listed in
12D, and the depth is taken as 10D. Mohr-Coulomb consti- Table 1.
tutive model is used in clay soil and the friction coefficient 3 Numerical calculation of spudcan bearing ca-
between foundation and soil is 0.6 with Coulomb friction pacity
contact surface between them. The displacement loading
method is used. Fig. 1 is the finite element model of the Bearing capacity of spudcans is closely related to cu, Nc and
soil-spudcan system by ABAQUS. For spudcan penetration, a p0ƍ, in which Nc is a critical parameter to be calculated. For the
certain depth of spudcan is pre-buried, with the difference of calculation of bearing capacity of spudcan, the authors follow
each pre-buried penetration depth of spudcan of 0.050.10 m. the following procedures: firstly, the cavity height is calcu-
The horizontal section of spudcan is circle and pile leg is cyl- lated to judge the conditions of spudcan shallow-penetration
(d<Hc) or deep-penetration (d>Hc); then the bearing capacity
of spudcan under two conditions is analyzed and the corre-
sponding calculation method is given, too.

3.1 Cavity height

During initial penetration, soil surface will heave and the

cavity above the foundation is formed. With further penetra-
tion, soil will flow back to the cavity. And when penetration is
deeper, only soil around the spudcan would flow without in-
fluencing the surface. In brief, during the whole penetration,
the destroyed range of soil is limited. Soil will not be dis-
turbed 7 m away from the spudcan in the horizontal direction,
and 2 m away from the spudcan bottom[2122]. Therefore, it is
Fig. 1 Three-dimensional finite element model of soil-spudcan
system (vertical displacement of soil after balance of initial earth believed that, the failure mode of soil around the spudcan
stress) agrees with local failure mode. The depth at which soil starts
 Zhang Puyang et al. / Petroleum Exploration and Development, 2011, 38(5): 613–619

Fig. 4 illustrates the results of Nc in open cavity condtion

(kD/cu0 is 0–’, d/D is 0–3). It is clear from Fig. 4 that when
kD/cu0 is small, Nc has a positive correlation with d/D; when
kD/cu0 is large, the correlation is negative. Fig. 4 also shows
that, with different kD/cu0 values, Nc starts to converge when
d/D is about 2.0, and converges to 10.27-10.38 when d/D is
about 2.5.
In order to study the change of Nc, numerical solutions and
analytic solutions[23] are summarized in Fig. 5. The analytic
solutions given by Martin are lower limit and upper limit of
Nc when rough circle plate foundation is on seabed surface
(d/D=0) and after penetration (d/D>0) which are obtained
with the limit analysis method without regard to the soil unit
weight.
The results show that Nc is increasing with d/D (lower limit
is 9.21–9.53, upper limit is 11.81–13.44). Nc in this paper
converges to 10.27-10.38, that is, the upper and lower limit is
between the results given by Martin, et al. It shows that geo-
metric parameters and roughness of foundation have little
influence on Nc. Based on Fig.5, by curve-fitting (illustrated
as trend line in Fig.5), the Nc can be expressed as
Nc=1.21[(d/D)23.52d/D5.47]İ10.30 (d<Hc) (5)
Fig. 3 Cavity height in homogeneous and inhomogeneous clay In the second situation (d<Hc), with further penetration, the
effective weight of soil (Ȗƍ) would be counteracted partially
to flow back, that is, the finally stable depth of cavity above with the increase of overburdened pressure of soil caused by
the spudcan is defined as the cavity height (Hc), i.e. the depth at soil backflow. The spudcan bearing capacity is decreased or
which soil surrounding the spudcan starts to flow to the cavity. the penetration depth is increased. Considering the failure
The normalized cavity height (Hc/D) is used, which is a mechanism of soil bearing capacity, soil backflow will in-
function of normalized soil strength (cum/ȖƍD) and soil homo-
geneous coefficient (k/Ȗƍ). Fig. 3 depicts the results of cavity
height at homogeneous clay (k=0, cu/ȖƍD is 00.8) and inho-
mogeneous clay (cu=cum+kz, kz0, cuH/ȖƍD is 00.7). In homo-
geneous clay, Hc/D is increasing with cu/ȖƍD. But when cu/ȖƍD
is over 0.5, the increment of Hc/D is decreased gradually. In
inhomogeneous clay, Hc/D is increasing with cu/ȖƍD, too. The
increasing rate is smaller than the former and the curvature is
basically unchanged.
By curve fitting, the formula of Hc/D in homogeneous clay
is expressed as
Hc/D=(cu/ȖƍD)0.58 (1)
The power is 0.55 in the formula of references [5] and [6]
Fig. 4 Nc in shallow penetration from FEM model
by the finite element modeling and centrifuge testing.
In similar way, the formula of Hc/D in inhomogeneous clay
is expressed as
Hc/D=0.78(cuH/ȖƍD)0.51 (2)
where
cuH=cum+kHc (3)
For a given spudcan diameter and soil condition, the cavity
height can be calculated by Equations (2) and (3).

3.2 Spudcan bearing capacity

For calculation of spudcan bearing capacity, two different

penetration depths (d<Hc and d>Hc) are given.
In the first situation (d<Hc), the formula is expressed as
Qu1=(Nccu+Ȗƍd)A (4) Fig. 5 Nc in shallow penetration
 Zhang Puyang et al. / Petroleum Exploration and Development, 2011, 38(5): 613–619

Fig. 6 Nc in deep penetration from FEM model

Fig. 8 Schematic of the Bohai No.5 offshore jack-up drilling

platform

example. Fig.8 illustrates the profile and top view drawing.

The spudcan is octagon and diameter D is 10 m. From the
manual of Bohai No.5 platform, the maximum penetration
depth is not more than 9 m while maximum preloading is 21
MN [24].
Fig. 7 Nc in deep penetration For a given condition of inhomogeneous soft clay(cum=5
kPa, k=1.2 kPa/m, and Ȗƍ=7 kN/m3) and preloading of 21 MN,
crease the shear resistance of soil, therefore, Nc would be in- the penetration depth is calculated as follows:
creased. The calculation formula of spudcan bearing capacity (1) Cavity height: determine the soil parameters of
considering the soil backflow effect is kD/cum=2.4 and k/Ȗƍ=0.17; calculate the cavity depth of 2.67 m
Qu2=(Nccu+ȖƍV/A)A (6) by iterating between Equations (2) and (3). (2) Bearing capac-
Fig. 6 shows the results of Nc for homogeneous clay ity at cavity height: while d<Hc, from equations (5), Nc could
(kD/cu0=0) and inhomogeneous clay while considering be taken as 8.12. and cuH is 8.20 kPa, so the maximum bearing
backflow in deeper penetration. It is shown in Fig. 6 that Nc capacity can be estimated as 8.3 MN from equation (4) (it
has obvious convergence. With the increase of penetration, the conforms to the preloading requirement of 21 MN from the
effect of kD/cu0 on Nc is diminishing. Nc starts to converge manual) and the spudcan will be penetrated further. (3) The
when d/D is 2.0, and converges to 12.2212.27 when d/D is ultimate penetration depth: while d>Hc, in the conditions of
2.5. preloading, d can be estimated as 8.24 m by equation (6).
Fig. 7 collects all the numerical solutions of Nc, and by In the same soil condition, the ultimate penetration depth is
curve-fitting (illustrated as trend line in Fig. 7), the Nc can be 8.61 m (without overburden pressure) and 8.93 m (with over-
expressed conservatively as burden pressure) by Skempton formulas[25], and 9.12 m by
Nc=2.17[(d/D)23.38d/D2.88]İ12.25 (d>Hc) (7) Tersaghi formulas[25]. By comparison, the results by numerical
simulation and Skempton’s method are less than the maxi-
4 Case study mum required penetration depth of 9 m, while the result by
In practice, it is the most critical problem to estimate the Tersaghi’s method is over 9 m. It is most probably because
penetration depth of an offshore jack-up drilling platform. Skempton’ method simplifies the penetration process of
And the first thing is to calculate exactly the bearing capacity spudcan, and Tersaghi’s method has no consideration of soil
of spudcan. In the paper, the main procedure of calculation is backflow. Although these two results have the reference value
to determine the bearing mode(d<Hc and d>Hc) by calculating in practice, they are both conservative by using the empirical
Hc, then to evaluate the bearing capacity by equations (4) or parameters in this formulas, which is the reason of the great
(6), in which Nc is calculated by equations (5) or (7). At last, difference between the calculation results and the actuality.
Qu1 or Qu2 could be determined by maxmium preloading, and The FEM model in this paper makes detailed analysis of rele-
the only unknown d of the ultimate penetration depth would vant parameters, and considers the interaction between soil
be estimated with the soil parameters. The calculation of d in and spudcan and the influence of soil backflow, which can
two conditions is presented as follows. estimate the value more practically.

4.1 In the inhomogeneous clay 4.2 In the homogeneous layers clay

Take Bohai No. 5 offshore jack-up drilling platform as an Also take Bohai No. 5 offshore jack-up drilling platform as
 Zhang Puyang et al. / Petroleum Exploration and Development, 2011, 38(5): 613–619

Table 2 Soil parameters

Moisture content/ Density/ Saturation/ Poisson Internal friction Modulus of
Soil Depth/m Void ratio Cohesion/kPa
(g·cm 3)
ˉ
% % ratio angle/(°) elasticity/MPa
Muddy clay 01.5 50.0 1.80 100 1.36 0.30 11 2.32
Silty Clay 1.54.0 46.2 1.86 99 1.34 0.35 27 1.95
Sand 4.010.0 38.8 2.00 96 1.10 0.30 38 3.05
Clay 10.020.0 41.0 1.86 99 1.17 0.35 30 2.40
Sand 20.050.0 30.9 1.92 95 1.07 0.35 55 1.83

For a given diameter of spudcan and soil unit weight, the

cavity height is directly proportional to cum/ȖƍD and k/Ȗƍ.
When the cavity above the spudcan is not formed totally,
for a smaller kD/cu0, Nc has a positive correlation with d/D.
When kD/cu0 is higher, the correlation is negative. The limit
values of Nc is 10.27-10.38 achieved for d/D of 1.5-2.0. The
numericially simulated Nc converges to 10.27-10.38 for
d/D>2.
Considering the backflow effect, with the increase of pene-
tration depth, the effect of changing kD/cu0 on Nc is
diminishing. When d/D=2, Nc converges to 12.2212.27.
The FEM model in this paper considers the interaction be-
tween soil and spudcan and nonlinear characteristics of soil,
as well as the end resistance and side friction of spudcans.
Therefore, the calculated penetration depth of spudcan in this
paper is more practical compared to the conventional method.
Fig. 9 Preloading vs. penetration depth curves

an example. The soil condition is homogeneous layers clay Nomenclature

(cum=11 kPa, k=0, and Ȗƍ=8 kN/m3 for first layer), shown as in
Table 2, and the penetration depth is calculated as follows: cuüSoil strength, kPa;
(1) Cavity height: calculate the cavity depth of 0.3 m by NcüBearing capacity factor;
equation (1). (2)Bearing capacity at cavity height: while d<Hc, cu0üSoil strength at penetration, kPa;
from equations (5), Nc could be taken as 7.89 and cuH is 11 kPa, küGradient of soil strength, kPa/m;
so the maximum bearing capacity can be estimated as 8.9 MN DüDiameter of spudcan, m;
from the equation (4) (it conforms to the preloading require- düPenetration depth of spudcan, m;
ment of 21 MN from the manual) and the spudcan will be cumüSoil strength at seabed, kPa;
penetrating further. (3)The ultimate penetration depth: while ȖƍüSoil effective weight, kN/m3;
d>Hc, in the conditions of preloading, d can be estimated as ș üAngle of cone, (°);
2.9 m by equation (6). hüHeight of spudcan, m;
Fig. 9 illustrates the results of the Hanna & Meyerhof h1üThickness of spudcan, m;
method[25] (hereinafter referred to as H&M method) and the HcüCavity height, m;
projected area method of 3ĩ1[25]. From the Fig. 9, it can be cuHüSoil strength at initial soil backflow, kPa;
seen that for a given penetration depth, there is about 20% z üSoil depth, m;
difference of preloading between the FEM model and the Qu1üBearing capacity of spudcan in shallow penetration (d<Hc),
theoretical calculations. It is mainly because the interaction kN;
between soil and spudcan and nonlinear characteristics of soil Qu2üBearing capacity of spudcan in deep penetration (d>Hc), kN;
are considered in the FEM model, as well as end resistance VüVolume of embedded pile leg and spudcan, m3;
and side friction of spudcans. Therefore, the results are more AüMaximum area of spudcan cross section, m2.
reasonable for predicting the penetration depth of spudcans.
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