Reliability-based earthquake design of jacket-type offshore platforms considering pile-soil-structure interaction

Abstract

There are plenty of uncertainties in environmental condition of ocean and also in platform element capacities. Reliability-based method could consider these uncertainties. A reliability-based earthquake design method was used to determine the earthquake LRFD parameters for two conventional, steel, pile-supported (template-type) offshore platforms located in the Persian Gulf. The pile-soil-structure interaction, the buckling and postbuckling behavior of the braces were considered.Two steel platforms were simulated accurately by the finite element program Opensees. Field data were assumed based on past studies. Sensitiveness of reliability-based method was studied. It was found that the geometry of jacket and different types of braces was important in the capacity and the behavior of offshore platforms. Finally the calculated LRFD elements resistance factors for these two platforms were compared with API recommended factors and it was observed that API recommended element resistance factors were more appropriate for SSL 3. © 2009 Science Publications.