Evaluation of Compressive Bearing Capacity of Long Offshore Steel Piles Driven in the Persian Gulf

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

Faculty of Civil, Water and Environmental Engineering, Shahid Beheshti University (SBU), Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Long-driven steel piles are widely used in the foundation of fixed offshore oil and gas extraction platforms due to the existence of physical limitations, heavy loads and weak shallow seabed soil layers. There are different methods to determine the pile bearing capacity, including static analysis, using the results of in-situ tests, as well as static and dynamic pile loading tests. In recent years, the in-situ cone penetration test has considerably been developed in the design of offshore piles owing to its high accuracy, continuous recoding across the depth, and similarity to pile. Additionally, the application of in-situ tests for pile design is of great interest due to difficulties in obtaining undisturbed soil samples at sea. The dynamic pile load test is also considered as an alternative and economical way to the static pile load test, particularly in offshore environments. In this paper, for the first time, a comprehensive data bank, including soil engineering parameters derived from laboratory and in-situ tests as well as field measurements obtained from dynamic pile tests in short, medium, and long-term conditions, is developed for the Persian Gulf - South Pars field. Afterward, fourteen methods, including four offshore static analysis methods and ten direct methods based on cone penetration test results, are selected and applied to estimate the axial compressive bearing capacity of steel pipe piles driven in the studied area. The results obtained from different methods are compared with the results of dynamic pile tests at three mentioned times and evaluated using the statistical criteria. According to the findings of the conducted statistical analyses, the lowest precision and prediction quality are provided in the four static analysis methods compared to the CPT-based methods for the developed data bank. The values of pile total ultimate bearing capacity obtained from the static analysis methods are on average 70%, 63%, and 35% higher than the corresponding values measured by the dynamic pile tests in short, medium, and long-term conditions, respectively.

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References

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Amirkabir Journal of Civil Engineering
Volume 53, Issue 9
December 2021
Pages 4029-4060

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