Journal article
Investigation of the vertical uplift capacity of deep water mudmats in clay
R Chen, C Gaudin, MJ Cassidy
Canadian Geotechnical Journal | CANADIAN SCIENCE PUBLISHING | Published : 2012
DOI: 10.1139/T2012-037
Abstract
Subsea mudmats are used in deep water oil and gas fields to support seabed structures, such as pipelines, manifolds, and well heads. On soft soil, removing mudmats during maintenance or decommissioning may be difficult and costly due to the significant suction that develops at the mudmat-soil interface, considerably increasing the uplift resistance beyond the submerged self-weight of the mudmat. This paper describes a series of centrifuge tests performed to investigate the uplift resistance of plain mudmats resting on lightly overconsolidated clay. The model mudmat invert was instrumented with pore pressure transducers to monitor the suction developing at the mudmat invert at various uplift ..
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Awarded by National Natural Science Foundation of China
Funding Acknowledgements
The first author conducted this research while visiting the Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems (COFS) as part of a Dalian University of Technology and University of Western Australia collaboration funded by the Australia-China Natural Gas Technology Partnership Fund. This financial support as well as that provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51079018) is appreciated. The work also forms part of the activities of the recently established Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Geotechnical Science and Engineering. The third author also acknowledges support through the ARC Future Fellowship scheme and from The Lloyd's Register Educational Trust.