Dynamic Finite Element Analysis for Interaction between Two Phase Saturated Soil Foundation and Platform

In this paper, the foundation soil of offshore structure is simulated as a two phase saturated porous medium. The dynamic equations of porous medium and finite element formulation are given. For structural analysis, the technique of multilevel substructure is used, and the saturated soil analysis is set in the highest level substructure model. Based on these theories a dynamic finite element analysis program DIASS for the analysis of interaction between two phase ocean soil foundation and platform structures has been developed. A numerical example is given here to illustrate the influence of the pore water in soil on the structural response of an ocean platform.     

Fatigue Test of Homemade Z Direction Steel Welded T Tubular Joints

This paper introduces the process and result of fatigue test of steel (Z direction steel) welded T tubular joints used in offshore engineering. Detailed measurement of stress concentration factor, stress distribution, fatigue life and crack development has been performed. Through analysis, an empirical formula of stress concentration factor for T tubular joints, fatigue S-N curve and crack propagation rule are obtained.     

Perturbation Analysis of the Attached Water Mass Effect on Offshore Platform Dynamic Response

- Theoretically speaking, it is impossible to make the differential equation of motion uncoupled for the natural modes of a system in consideration of the attached water. The hydro-elastic structure is equal to the, non-proportional damping system. In this paper a perturbation analysis method is put forward. The structure motion equation is strictly solved mathematically, and the non-proportional damping problem is transformed into a series of proportional damping ones in the superposition form. The paper also presents the calculation formula of the dyanamic response of the structure being subjected to harmonic and arbitrary load. The convergence of the proposed method is also studied in this paper, and the corresponding convergence conditions are given. Finally, the proposed method is used to analyze the displacement response of a real offshore platform. The calculation results show that this method has the characteristics of high accuracy and fast convergence.     

Wave Pressure Distribution over the Breast Wall of Mound Breakwater of Small Ports

In this paper, the mechanism of the interaction between the breast wall of mound breakwater and waves is expounded, then some new views and the law of variation of horizontal and vertical wave pressure over the breast wall are put forward. The results of this study have been adopted in the Specifications of Fishery Harbour Breakwater by the Ministry of Agricultures.     

Soil Plugging Effect on Drivability Prediction of Offshore Platform Piles

Field measurements of driving resistances and heights of soil core during driving were made offshore and onshore of steel pipe piles. Measured data show that the height of soil core varies differently for piles of different diameters with the increase of penetration. Dynamic plugging could be assumed never to occur for steel pipe piles with diameters over 900 mm. Soil resistances at the time of continuous driving (SRD) are back analyzed from blow counts with an empirical distribution of resistances suppported by many early dynamic measurements. A method of predicting SRD is finally suggested.     

Longshore Current on an Equilibrium Beach

Natural beaches tend to be concave-up rather than planar and are reasonable to be modeled by an equilibrium beach profile. A governing equation for longshore current on an equilibrium beach is derived and its analytical solution is given in this paper. Through comparisons of the present solution and field data of longshore current for a step-type beach, the present solution is found to have fairly agreeable prediction to longshore current inside the surf zone. The effects of the shape of a concave-up beach and turbulent mixing stress on longshore current inside the surf zone are discussed in the present paper.     

Microbial biomineralization processes forming modern Ca:Mg carbonate stromatolites

Modern Ca:Mg carbonate stromatolites form in association with the microbial mat in the hypersaline coastal lagoon, Lagoa Vermelha (Brazil). The stromatolites, although showing diversified fabrics characterized by thin or crude lamination and/or thrombolitic clotting, exhibit a pervasive peloidal microfabric. The peloidal texture consists of dark, micritic aggregates of very high‐Mg calcite and/or Ca dolomite formed by an iso‐oriented assemblage of sub‐micron trigonal polyhedrons and organic matter. Limpid acicular crystals of aragonite arranged in spherulites surround these aggregates. Unlike the aragonite crystals, organic matter is present consistently in the dark, micritic carbonate comprising the peloids. This organic matter is observed as sub‐micron flat and filamentous mucus‐like structures inside the interspaces of the high‐Mg calcite and Ca dolomite crystals and is interpreted as the remains of degraded extracellular polymeric substances. Moreover, many fossilized bacterial cells are associated strictly with both carbonate phases. These cells consist mainly of 0·2 to 4 μm in diameter, sub‐spherical, rod‐like and filamentous forms, isolated or in colony‐like clusters. The co‐existence of fossil extracellular polymeric substances and bacterial bodies, associated with the polyhedrons of Ca:Mg carbonate, implies that the organic matter and microbial metabolism played a fundamental role in the precipitation of the minerals that form the peloids. By contrast, the lack of extracellular polymeric substances in the aragonitic phase indicates an additional precipitation mechanism. The complex processes that induce mineral precipitation in the modern Lagoa Vermelha microbial mat appear to be recorded in the studied lithified stromatolites. Sub‐micron polyhedral crystal formation of high‐Mg calcite and/or Ca dolomite results from the coalescence of carbonate nanoglobules around degraded organic matter nuclei. Sub‐micron polyhedral crystals aggregate to form larger ovoidal crystals that constitute peloids. Subsequent precipitation of aragonitic spherulites around peloids occurs as micro‐environmental water conditions around the peloids change.     

Facies and stacking patterns of shelf-deltas within the Palaeogene Battfjellet Formation, Nordenskiöld Land, Svalbard: implications for subsurface reservoir prediction

Textural and mineralogical properties of the sediment, facies characteristics (both derived from well data), stacking patterns (derived from well and seismic data) and plan‐view shapes (derived from seismic data) are all essential components when reconstructing reservoir geometries from subsurface data sets. Without the availability of all these sources of information, reservoir predictions can potentially deviate significantly from the true geometries. In particular, inferences about internal sandbody geometry from plan‐view considerations (isopach maps and seismic attribute maps) may lead to erroneous conclusions without knowledge of facies and textural properties of the sediment. Analysis of well‐exposed sedimentary systems has the potential to establish links between internal facies characteristics and large‐scale geometry and to improve models coupling information at these variable scales. The Palaeogene Battfjellet Formation, Svalbard, has been studied with the aim to unravel internal characteristics and external form by investigating sediment properties, facies and stacking patterns. The formation shows a combination of texturally and mineralogically very immature sediments, a predominance of wave‐generated or wave‐induced sedimentary structures and a stacking pattern of highly variable numbers of parasequences at localities few kilometres apart that best can be explained in terms of small shifting deltaic lobes that produced a complex pattern of overlapping sandbodies. The strong evidence of wave action in the receiving basin could in itself indicate strike‐extensive sandstone bodies; however, the complex sandbody arrangement and the immaturity of the sediments preclude such an interpretation. Traditional facies models coupling plan‐view geometries with internal facies characteristics (such as the coupling of strike extensive barrier systems with wave‐dominated sedimentary structures or the coupling of elongated fluvial‐dominated deltas with offshore‐directed current‐generated structures) are much too simple and may lead to erroneous interpretations if the complexity revealed by all sources of data is not appreciated.     

Sediment dispersal and quantitative stratigraphic architecture across an ancient shelf

Two large (200 to 300 km), near‐continuous outcrop transects and extensive well‐log data (ca 2800 wells) allow analysis of sedimentological characteristics and stratigraphic architecture across a large area (ca 60 000 km²) of the latest Santonian to middle Campanian shelf along the western margin of the Western Interior Seaway in eastern Utah and western Colorado, USA. Genetically linked depositional systems are mapped at high chronostratigraphic resolution (ca 0·1 to 0·5 Ma) within their sequence stratigraphic context. In the lower part of the studied interval, sediment was dispersed via wave‐dominated deltaic systems with a ‘compound clinoform’ geomorphology in which an inner, wave‐dominated shoreface clinoform was separated by a muddy subaqueous topset from an outer clinoform containing sand‐poor, gravity‐flow deposits. These strata are characterized by relatively steep, net‐regressive shoreline trajectories (>0·1°) with concave‐landward geometries, narrow nearshore belts of storm‐reworked sandstones (2 to 22 km), wide offshore mudstone belts (>250 km) and relatively high sediment accumulation rates (ca 0·27 mm year^?1). The middle and upper parts of the studied interval also contain wave‐dominated shorefaces, but coeval offshore mudstones enclose abundant ‘isolated’ tide‐influenced sandstones that were transported sub‐parallel to the regional palaeoshoreline by basinal hydrodynamic (tidal?) circulation. These strata are characterized by relatively shallow, net‐regressive shoreline trajectories (<0·1°) with straight to concave‐seaward geometries, wide nearshore belts of storm‐reworked sandstones (19 to 70 km), offshore mudstone belts of variable width (130 to >190 km) and relatively low sediment accumulation rates (ca ≤0·11 mm year^?1). The change in shelfal sediment dispersal and stratigraphic architecture, from: (i) ‘compound clinoform’ deltas characterized by across‐shelf sediment transport; to (ii) wave‐dominated shorelines with ‘isolated’ tide‐influenced sandbodies characterized by along‐shelf sediment transport, is interpreted as reflecting increased interaction with the hydrodynamic regime in the seaway as successive shelfal depositional systems advanced out of a sheltered embayment (‘Utah Bight’). This advance was driven by a decreasing tectonic subsidence rate, which also suppressed autogenic controls on stratigraphic architecture.