Analysis of spudcan-footprint interaction in a single soil with nonlinear FEM

The footprints that remain on the seabed after offshore jack-up platforms completed operations and moved out provide a significant risk for any future jack-up installation at that site. Detrimental horizontal and/or rotational loads will be induced on the base cone of the jack-up platform leg (spudcan) in the preloading process where only vertical loads are normally expected. However, there are no specific guidelines on design of spudcan re-installation very close to or partially overlapping existing footprints. This paper presents a rational design approach for assessing spudcan-footprint interaction and the failure process of foundation in a single layer based on nonlinear finite element method. The relationship between the distance between the spudcan and the footprint and the horizontal sliding force has been obtained. Comparisons of simulation and experimental results show that the model in this paper can deal well with the combined problems of sliding friction contact, fluid-solid coupling, and convergence difficulty. The analytical results may be useful to jack-up installation workovers close to existing footprints.