In 1949, the J. Ray McDermott Co. built Derrick Barge Four equipped with a 150-ton revolving crane. The appearance of this vessel effectively ended the piece-by-piece construction practice offshore. Both jackets and decks could be built as modules and transported offshore to be set in place by the high-capacity cranes. The increased crane capacity coupled with bigger pile hammers allowed offshore structures to be supported by fewer, but larger, piles. In 1953,McDermott introduced a 250-ton capacity derrick barge. Brown & Root followed with the Herman B (250-ton gantry crane) and L.T. Bolin (300-ton hammerhead crane). North Sea activity spurred another evolution in floating crane design leading to huge semisubmersible derrick barges with lift capacities in excess of 10,000 tons.
Recognizing the pioneering efforts of the following people and companies who contributed to the development of this technology:
Roger Wilson, Charley Graves, Nelson Crews, and Lou Stewart, Frank Motley Ferd Hauber. Brown & Root International (Halliburton), J. Ray McDermott Company (now McDermott International)
First it was necessary to determine the composition of the seafloor. The first marine soil mechanics boring was performed in August 1947 for the California Co. in 22 feet of water at a proposed platform site offshore Louisiana. It was drilled by a conventional land rig placed on a small platform designed and fabricated by McClelland Engineers. In the next six years about twenty similar borings were done along the Texas/Louisiana coastline. In 1953, Robert Perkins developed the technique of drilling from an anchored barge with a land rig cantilevered over the side.
In 1962, wireline sampling in uncased boreholes was introduced and became a cost effective procedure for conducting geotechnical investigations in deep water. In 1966, the remote vane was developed to make in situ measurements of clay shear strength from floating vessels.
In addition to determining the consistency of foundation materials, the technical contributions to the design of offshore foundations by McClelland Engineers were equally pioneering. In 1953, Bramlette McClelland and John Focht made landmark analyses of lateral load tests on offshore piles resulting in an ASME paper titled, “Soil Mechanics Applied to Mobile Drilling Structures”. In 1956, they introduced the concept of limiting skin friction of stiff clays for driven piles, and they proposed the technique, now known as the “p-y concept”, for the analysis of laterally loaded piles. API RP2A reflects their research on the tensile capacity of driven and jetted piles in sand. During the 1960s, they developed comprehensive criteria for predicting capacity of driven and grouted single piles or circular pile groups in sands and soft marine clays. This program was paralleled by research on clay shear strength as influenced by different sampling and testing methods.
Recognizing the pioneering efforts of the following individuals and companies who contributed to the development of this technology:
John A. Focht, Jr., Bramlette McClelland, and Robert L. Perkins
McClelland Engineers, Inc. (Fugro-McClelland Marine Geosciences, Inc.)
Recognizing the pioneering efforts of the following people and companies who contributed to the development of this technology:
Bennie Lynn Frennesson, R. A. Turrentine, “Ox” Hinman and Willie Schoolcraft
Recognizing the pioneering efforts of the following individuals and companies that contributed to the development of this technology:
Bob Cross, Fritz Culver, Pat Tesson, Aquatic Contractors & Engineers, Inc. (now Transocean), and the California Company (now Chevron).
Reliability analysis has been particularly useful in assessing existing structures that have suffered damage or experienced changes in loading conditions, and in deciding among alternative remedial actions. For the design of new structures, a procedure called Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) has been developed that helps size each component of a structure without embarking on a complex reliability evaluation. The factors are based on probabilistic parameters that characterize load and resistance uncertainties and randomness. New designs using LRFD and advanced reliability methods are more efficient than old designs because the reliability among structural components is better balanced and steel is placed where it does the most good. These reliability-based procedures have been incorporated in the development of new API and ISO standards for the design of marine structures.
Following are some of the many individuals who pioneered in the development of this technology for marine structures:
Michael J. Baker, Henrik O. Madsen, Robert G. Bea, Peter W. Marshall, C. Allin Cornell, Torgeir Moan, Michael Efthymiou, Fred Moses, Svein Fjeld, Bernhard Stahl, Ove Gudmestad, Wilson H. Tang, Richard D. Larrabee, Paul H. Wirsching, James R. Lloyd
As long as water depths and jacket heights were limited, these disadvantages were outweighed by the years of experience that came with driving “from the top”. However, as projected water depths for platforms began to approach 1000 feet, it became obvious that underwater driving would be the long-term solution. Today, hydraulic pile drivers are capable of driving piles in water depths up to 10,000 ft. The center for underwater hammer development was the in the North Sea, with significant efforts by Menck GmbH, HBM and later IHC Hydrohammer b.v.
Interestingly, the first actual usage was in the Gulf of Mexico in 1977, on Shell’s Cognac platform. This was followed closely by several jobs in the North Sea, and by 1987 over 600 piles had been driven by underwater pile drivers. Today, massive pile drivers with over 2½ million ft-pounds of net energy output are available, and piles of varying diameter have been driven over 600 feet into the seafloor in installations worldwide.
The underwater pile driver was literally a game changer in the ability to install foundations in deepwater. Because of its efficiency in energy transfer, and the fact that “followers” were not needed thus considerably reducing the handling issues, underwater hydraulic pile drivers have also been used extensively in shallower water.
Underwater hydraulic pile drivers provide a robust and versatile method for installing driven piles for offshore developments. They have been used to install the foundations for fixed platforms in both deep and shallower water, and the foundations for a range of floating production systems including TLPs and SPARS, as well as FPSOs and FLNGs, along with a variety of subsea infrastructures in shallow to ultra-deepwaters. Recent developments have seen the pile driving equipment installing drilling conductors in water depths beyond 7,200 ft, saving significant rig time and increasing the overall level of safety and efficiency on the job.
Recognizing the pioneering efforts of the organizations that pioneered this technology:
IHC Hydrohammer b.v. (Marwede Group), Menck GmbH
HFE reviews have resulted in an estimated reduction in life cycle costs of 3 to 6% and a significant reduction in accidents. Taking HFE into account assures the design matches the capabilities of individuals using the equipment. This increases safety by making it more likely that individuals, while under stress,
will take the appropriate action and be capable of responding quickly.
Recognizing the pioneering efforts of the following individuals and organizations that contributed to this technology:
Frank Amato, Mike Curole, Dan Godfrey, Denise McCafferty and Gerry Miller
G. E. Miller and Associates, Paragon Engineering Services (now AMEC Foster Wheeler)
and Shell