Geotechnical research for resource development

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The development of Canada's hydrocarbon resources is proceeding both onshore and offshore. The advancement of both marine geotechnical and onshore geomechanical research will aid the development of marginally economic fields and will improve the cost effectiveness of all fields. This application assists this advancement through 8 ongoing and 8 new projects. A common link in most of these research projects is experimental modelling in the large C-CORE centrifuge facility. First the behaviour of suction caissons in soft clay is being understood by isolating the contributions of soil resistance between the inside and outside faces. The second project will continue the investigation of the length to diameter ratio effect and repeated (cyclic) load reversals on shaft capacities of close-ended piles in sand. The third is evaluating of alternative wellhead installation concepts for marginal subsea developments. The fourth study continues to consider permafrost-structure interaction due to thaw settlement and frost heave, which will be required for pipelines now being reconsidered from northern regions to N American markets. The continued development of a Canadian national geotechnical earthquake modelling capability has permitted projects on the initiation of submarine slope instability and the mitigation of damage to waterfront slopes. This new capability allows new earthquake projects on the mitigation of stratified slopes continuing COSTA-Canada, slope deformation mechanisms and pile response in variable soils. Two new projects will examine submarine slope stability in gassy soils under tidal fluctations and shallow seafloor stability due to wave action. Oblique loads effects on pipe soil interaction, soil influence on buried pipe structural response and the influence of sand production on oil recovery rates from deep production wells are the other 3 new projects.