• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.107-120
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• 2017

Spud-can is used for fixing jack-up rig on seabed. It needs to be inserted up to the required depth during the installation process to secure enough soil reaction and prevent overturning accidents. On the other hand, it should be extracted from seabed soils as fast as possible during the extraction process to minimize the corresponding operational cost. To achieve such goals, spud-can may be equipped with water-jetting system including monitoring and control. To develop such a smart spud-can, a reliable numerical simulation tool is essential and it has also to be validated against physical model tests. In this regard, authors developed a numerical simulation tool by using a commercial program ANSYS with extended Drucker-Prager (EDP) formula. Authors also conducted small-scale (1/100) physical model tests for verification and calibration purpose. By using the numerical model, a systematic parametric study is conducted both for sand and K(kaolin)-clay with varying important soil parameters and the best estimated soil properties of the physical test are deduced. Then, by using the selected soil properties, the numerical and experimental results for a sand/K-clay multi-layer case are cross-checked to show reasonably good agreement. The validated numerical model will be useful in the next-stage study which includes controllable water-jetting.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.263-278
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• 2014

The spudcan requires the suitable design considering the soil, platform, and environmental conditions. Its shape needs to be designed to secure sufficient reaction of soil so that it can prevent overturning accidents. Its shape also has to minimize the installation and extraction time. Even in the same soil condition, the reaction of soil may be different depending on the shape of spud can, mainly the slope of top and bottom plates. Therefore, in this study, the relation between the slope of plates and the reaction of soil with and without water jetting is analyzed to better understand their interactions and correlations. For the investigation, a wind turbine installation jack-up rig (WTIJ) is selected as the target platform and the Gulf of Mexico is considered as the target site. A multi layered (sand overlying two clays) soil profile is applied as the assumed soil condition and the soil-structure interaction (SSI) analysis is performed by using ANSYS to analyze the effect of the slope change of the bottom plate and water jetting on the reaction of soil. This kind of investigation and simulation is needed to develop optimal and smart spudcan with water-jetting control in the future.