Investigation of potential spudcan punch through failure

安全、经济地使用移动式自升式结构对于澳大利亚重要的海上石油和天然气工业的繁荣发展至关重要。然而，它们的使用受到安装过程中潜在的“穿洞”故障的阻碍，因为它们的大圆锥形底座可能会意外地、不受控制地将局部坚固的土壤区域推入下面较软的材料中。为了提高其安全性，本研究将探索一种潜在的新的现场调查程序，并开发一种适当的计算方法来预测砂覆粘土场地的失效。结果将基于一系列创新的物理和数值实验，并根据现场数据和现有工业标准进行评估。

The safe and economic use of mobile jack-up structures is critical to the prosperous development of Australia's significant offshore oil and gas industry. However, their use is hindered by potential 'punch-through' failure during installation, when their large conical footings can unexpectedly and uncontrollably push a locally strong zone of soil into underlying softer material. To improve their safety, this research will investigate a potential new site-investigation procedure and develop an appropriate calculation method for predicting failures for sites where sand overlies clay. Results will be based on a series of innovative physical and numerical experiments, and assessed against field data and existing industry standards.