Development of pile foundation bias factors using observed behavior of platforms during Hurricane Andrew
The performance of more than 3,000 offshore platforms in the Gulf of Mexico was observed during the passage of Hurricane Andrew in August 1992. This event provided an opportunity to test the procedures used for platform analysis and design. A global bias was inferred for overall platform capacity and loads in the Andrew Joint Industry Project (JIP) Phase 1. It was predicted that the pile foundations of several platforms should have failed, but did not. These results indicated that the biases specific to foundation failure modes may be higher than those of jacket failure modes. The biases in predictions of foundation failure modes were therefore investigated further in this study. The work included capacity analysis and calibration of predictions with the observed behavior for 3 jacket platforms and 3 caissons using Bayesian updating. Bias factors for two foundation failure modes, lateral shear and overturning, were determined for each structure. Foundation capacity estimates using conventional methods were found to be conservatively biased overall.
- OSTI ID:
- 433937
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-960525--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Capacities of template-type platforms in the Gulf of Mexico during hurricane Andrew
Evaluation of capacities of template-type Gulf of Mexico platforms