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Offshore Technology Conference Asia
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OTC-30054-MS
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Please fill in your manuscript title. Rule Based Design Application to Offhore Jacket Structures

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Given Name Middle name Surname Company
Nagaraju N McDermott International Inc
Syam Pillai
Chaithanya Kumar

Abstract
Rule based system design has been developed for weight estimates and designing a fixed platform jacket
as a part of standardized jacket design. A simple fixed offshore jacket design involves many governing
parameters such as environmental criteria, deck size and weight, site specific parameters, construction and
installation variables. A domain-based approach has been used to minimize the governing parameters in
the design, so that rule-based system can be developed. The paper presents the rule-based system
developed for fixed well head platform jacket with 4 legs, leg through pile, lift installed jacket in a water
depth up to 60m. Rule based system has been developed in two stages.

In the first stage, rules were developed to estimate an overall jacket and pile weight which can be used
The weight generated by rule based design has been bench marked against one set of standard jacket
design.

McDermott has constructed and installed more than 300 jackets in the above domain. A database has been
developed from these jackets, which included the key design variables required for the jacket design.
Empirical formulae along with the information from this database, were used to develop rules to generate
the gravity loads, environmental loads and installation loads required for the jacket design. A screening
analysis was performed using the rules developed to select the design parameters and site-specific data to
be used for jacket design without compromising the optimization of the jacket. Similarly, the
appurtenances viz. conductors, risers, boat landing, etc. on the jacket were grouped into a range to
minimize the parameters to be considered for the jacket design. Using this approach, few thousand
possible design parameters were reduced to less than hundred governing parameters for possible range of
water depth, specific to site. A range of soil capacity curves were used to simulate the soil capacity
variation in the selected jacket domain. Rules for developing the pile diameter, pile penetration and
possible hammer required to drive the piles were developed. These rules formed the basis for the
knowledge base required for the rule based system.

This rule-based system has been used to develop standard jacket configuration with weight estimation
accuracy of +/-20%, so that this can form a good input for the cost estimate with a quick turnaround.
Standard jacket configuration developed for the selected domain has been analyzed and compared with
the jacket weights derived from the rules. Construction, installation and build methods were confirmed
along with the jacket configuration development.

Rule based system which is a part of the Artificial Intelligence development tool, has been historically
used in disease diagnosis, automobile production industry, select tactical moves to play a game, graphic
interface development. This paper presents a McDermott’s initiative to arrive at jacket configuration by
using rule based system which can help to automate the jacket design.
2

Introduction
Structural design of offshore platforms has been influenced by many factors such as client specifications,
varying layout requirements to meet the operational & safety requirements and site-specific parameters.
Structural design standardization has been successful partially, as the varying parameters which influence
the design are many. To certain extent jacket design has been standardized for well head platforms in
shallow water depth for specific site location. This standardization is limited to operating conditions only
for the shallow water depth well head platforms and does not capture the installation aspects.

This paper describes a rule-based system to generate the structural steel weight for the selected domain of
the jacket. The flow chart in Figure 1.0 gives the key steps involved. Using these rules, a standard jacket
configuration was developed, analyzed and the weight has been compared against the weight estimated
from the rule-based system. The domain concept is used to avoid weight penalty on the jacket which can
result with standard jacket member sizes. Similar domains can be developed to cover the jackets in deeper
water with heavier deck requiring other installation methods. Standardized jacket design using the rules
concept can be easily extended to cover these domains.

Figure 1.0 Flow chart for rule-based design approach

Domain Selection
This paper presents a standard jacket design for well head platform located in up to 60m water depth with
4 legs, with leg through pile and lift installed by a lift vessel. The topside operating weight has been limited
to 2500MT. The soil data predominantly from Projects in Middle East has been chosen with varying
ultimate capacity with pile penetration depth. Jacket can be built and transported vertically (for lesser
water depth) or horizontally. A proper domain selection is important so that rules development is easier
 3

and weight penalty for standardized jacket is kept to a minimum. This domain covers nearly 70% of the
jacket installed by McDermott.
Database Set-up
This database was developed using Microsoft excel macros which consists of an exhaustive list of design
data corresponding to jacket design. 4-legged lift-installed jackets in Water depth range of 5-60m with leg
through piles has been used to populate the data. A total of 113 Well-head platform jackets data was
populated covering jackets engineered in McDermott engineering offices located in Chennai, Dubai, Saudi
Arabia, Kuala Lumpur and Houston.

For each of the platform selected following categories of data were assembled in the database
a) General data - Platform name, Project name, Location, Platform type, Client and Year built.
b) Geometry - work point dimensions, leg and brace details including leg batter, brace pattern, number
of bays, diameter, thickness, corrosion allowance and the related weights
c) Appurtenances - Caisson, Riser, J tube, Conductors, Riser guards, Anodes and the related weights
d) Environmental data - Water depth, wave, current and wind data for operating and storm condition
along with the corresponding base shear due to wave/current, buoyancy and wind
e) Other jacket data - installation aids weight, Seismic acceleration details and boat impact details
f) Deck data - Not To Exceed (NTE) weight along with Centre of gravity (CG), work-over rig weight
and CG
g) Foundation data - pile details including diameter, thickness, penetration, number of segments, scour
depth, mudmat area and bearing capacity, pile ultimate capacity, driving resistance, blow count
during pile drive-ability, hammer details.
h) Marine spread data - transportation barge class, lift vessel details
i) Construction data - loadout details (skidded or trailer), transportation method (vertical or horizontal
along with support details), tow accelerations details, upending (single or double block), on bottom
set down details.
The database containing above attributes was made searchable using window developed macros feature
available in MS Excel.

Formulation of Rules
Rules are formulated to estimate the jacket loads, finalize the construction methods and the marine spreads
using the relationship between various variables complimented by curve fitting methods using the data in
the data base. Rules are formulated using macros feature inside the excel spreadsheet. These rules can be
used for:
• Developing inputs required for a quick cost estimate for the jacket which can be used at the
proposal stage and as a starting point for the detailed design
• Reducing the parameters which govern the jacket design, so that a standard jacket can be developed
for the selected parameters.

Following sections describes the development of few rules used with in the domain selected:
a. Rule for jacket primary steel weight - Volumetric weight approach along with curve fitting has been
used to derive the jacket weight. The curve fitting from the database is given in Figure 2.0 below.
4

Jacket Vol Vs Jacket Primary weight

1400

1200

1000
Jacket Primary Weight

800

600

400

200

0
0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000
Jacket Volume
Figure 2.0 Rule for Primary steel weight derivation

b. Rule for jacket secondary steel weight - Caisson, Riser, J tube weights were derived as a function of
the diameter and jacket water depth. Riser guards and boat landing weights were derived as function
of span and impact energy. Mud mat weight was taken as a function of the jacket on bottom weight
and bearing pressure. Anode weight was taken as a function of primary and secondary steel weight.
Database has been used to apply the required correction factors to these approximate derived weights.
c. Rule for miscellaneous weights - Marine growth weight, buoyancy weight and installation aids
weights were derived from the database as a function of the jacket steel weight.
d. Rule for Wave load - Considering a unit diameter member, series of analysis performed for range of
water depths, wave heights, time periods and current velocities for normalization purposes. Table 1.0
below gives the summary of the analysis results which has been used to formulate the rule for wave
load generation on the jacket.

Table 1.0 Wave load generation for unit diameter pipe

e. Rule for wind load - used as a function of the deck exposed area.
f. Rule for pile head load - Jacket gravity load, wave load and environmental loads were generated using
the rules developed. Deck load and its CG was available as input for pile load estimation. Lever arm
 5

for decoupling the pile loads is estimated based on most onerous incident environmental approach
angle.
g. Rule for pile diameter and thickness - pile diameter is derived extrapolating the data in the database.
Thickness is derived as a function of diameter and pile capacity.
h. Rule for pile penetration and soil resistance to driving (SRD)- Pile capacity curves from the database
has been reviewed. Based on this review nine soil types were selected to cover the complete range of
the soil capacity curves expected in this region. Normalized pile capacity curves for these nine soil
types used for developing the rules are given in Figure 3.0. For a specific soil at site, rules are formed
as a function of pile diameter, penetration and soil capacity for the nine selected curves. SRD has
been taken as function of the ultimate capacity curves with correction factors derived from the
database.
Pile Capacity - Various Representative Fields
Pile Capacity in 'MN'
0
0.0 20.0 40.0 60.0 80.0 100.0

-10

-20

-30

-40
Pile Penetration in 'm'

-50

-60

-70

-80

-90

-100

-110

SOIL TYPE-1 SOIL TYPE-2 SOIL TYPE-3

SOIL TYPE-4 SOIL TYPE-5 SOIL TYPE-6
SOIL TYPE-7 SOIL TYPE-8 SOIL TYPE-9

Figure 3.0 Soil Capacity curve used for deriving the rule for pile penetration

i. Rule for pile hammer selection - Empirical relation between Hammer Energy (E), Pile Stiffness (k),
and SRD (S) was used to develop a curve for the hammer selection using the database. The curve
used for the rule is given in Figure 4.0.
6

80
70
60
50

SRD 'MN'
40
30
20
10
0
0.00E+00 1.00E+08 2.00E+08 3.00E+08
E*k
Figure 4.0 Curve used for hammer energy selection

Standard Jacket Development

As seen from the Figure 5.0, a typical jacket within the selected domain is still governed by many
parameters. Jacket design can be standardized if the design parameters are reduced. One of the drawbacks
with standard jacket design is the weight penalty one has to pay if the parameters are not selected correctly.
For screening of the parameters, rules developed were used and the weight increase in the jacket with
variation in each of these parameters were assessed. Then the jacket design was reduced to three variables
for a given water depth as shown in Figure 5.0. For a given water depth, the jacket configuration is fixed
for either 6 or 12 conductors, up to a deck load of 2500MT with soil varying between the nine soil types
found in the middle east.

Figure 5.0 Design parameter selection for Standard Jacket Design

Based on this screening assessment, four jacket configurations were developed to cover the water depth
with in the selected domain. The jacket configuration developed from rules for the four water depths are
included in Appendix A. Following are the parameters used for developing the configuration:
• Conductor slots of 3x2 and 4x3 configuration were considered for 6 and 12 conductors
respectively. Based on this conductor arrangement, a work point dimensions at the jacket top of
14m x 16m and 16m x 20m were used for the 6 and 12 conductors respectively.
• Work point elevation and number of horizontal levels were derived from the database and the
brace angle reequipments as shown in the configuration included in Appendix A. Based on this, a
single bay jacket was considered up to 15m water depth, two bays up to 37m water depth and three
bays beyond this water depth until 60m.
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• Pile diameter was derived from the rules. Pile to jacket leg clearance of 25mm (up to 42mm pile
diameter) to 38mm (beyond 42mm pile diameter) was considered for the jacket leg diameter. Leg
thickness at nodes were derived from the database with correction for diameter to thickness where
required. Horizontal and diagonal brace sizes were derived from database and corrected for the
requirements of minimum slenderness ratio from the industry standards.
• Jacket is considered straight without batter up to 37m water depth; considered to be fabricated,
transported and lift installed vertically offshore. Beyond this depth, jacket is considered with
batter; fabricated, shipped horizontally and lift upended by double hooks of the lifting vessel at
offshore. This information is used for construction and installation related weight impact
assessment on the jacket weight.

Results comparison
For the four-standard configuration selected, key pre-service (transportation and lifting) and in-service
(in-place and fatigue) analyses were performed with the varying parameters identified in Figure 5.0. SACS
(Structural Analysis Computer Software developed by Bentley) [1] software was used and code checked
as per the requirements of API RP 2A [2]. SACS model used for the four-standard configuration is shown
in Figure 6.0. A standard deck stiffness along with a standard set of appurtenances was included as part
of the analysis. The standard set of appurtenances included one boat landing, two risers (26” diameter),
two caissons (24” diameter), four barge bumpers (30” diameter), anodes and jacket walkway framing apart
from the conductors. For transportation assessment, Noble Denton criteria (new DNVGL) [3] has been
used. Jacket has been checked for loadout using trailers or lifting.

Figure 6.0 Standard Jacket Configuration

The pile load, primary steel and installation weight of the jacket derived from rules and analyses are
tabulated in Table 2.0 and 3.0 for the 6 and 12 conductors respectively. Pile load has been tabulated for
the jacket configuration with the maximum deck weight of 2500MT for comparison purpose. Key
observation from this comparison are summarized below:

• The jacket primary steel and installation weight difference is less than 10% up to water depth of
50m. For water depth more than 50m, the difference is higher. Key reasons for the differences:
8

₋ Skewness of the data in the database. The database has more jackets in water depth less than
50m. Since the primary steel is proportional to the volume in the rule-based system, the
volumetric weight derived from skewed database will give higher primary steel weight.
₋ Wide range of jacket configuration with varying brace pattern, pile sizes, leg batter in the
database.
• Pile load variation is more towards the lower water depth. Key reasons for the variations:
₋ Skewness of the soil data towards one set of soil.
₋ Pile-soil interaction not accounted in the rules
₋ Different jacket batter in the standard configuration

Table 2.0 Standard jacket with 6 conductors - weight comparison from the rules and analyses
 9

Table 3.0 Standard jacket with 12 conductors - weight comparison from the rules and analyses

Based on the comparisons from the analysis results and rule estimated values, rules have been fine tuned
to align with the analysis results within 5% variation. Few key rules related to load generation have been
corrected as below:

• The primary steel weight rule has been corrected to align with the analysis results for deeper jacket.
A correction factor has been used for the volumetric values derived from the database.
• Base shear reduction factor is estimated based on wave height.
• Environmental load due to wave and current has been normalized to match the standard jacket
wave loads and the same is shown below in Figure 7.0.
Depth Vs Normalized base shear per unit water
plane dia
Normalized Base shear (kN)

200

150

100

50

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Water Depth 'm'

Figure 7.0 Revised environmental load generation for unit diameter pipe
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Automated jacket design

For a specific jacket located within the domain, the jacket primary steel and secondary steel weight can
be derived based on the corrected rules, using the standard design within 5% accuracy. Standard jacket
detail can be used for developing the jacket construction required details.

For the construction related details, currently McDermott owned lift vessel with 2000MT capacity has
been used. Typically, these vessels will have 2000MT main hook capacity and 600MT auxiliary hook
capacity. Lift upending clearances of the standard jacket has been checked using this as the basis.

Other offshore cost is related to pile welding time which depend on the number of pile segments required.
For the standard jacket configuration, pile segments for various pile diameter and soil types have been
derived using the rule based process. The rules are derived based on the lifting hook height, allowable free
standing length of the piles (with and without hammer), pile cut off allowance and other lifting allowances.
Summary of the pile segments for the nine soil types with varying deck load and water depth are given in
Tables 4.0 and 5.0 for 6 and 12 conductors respectively. Pile penetration and segmentation is based on the
nine soil layer, the jacket water depth as tabulated assuming hammers from the rules and the McDermott
installation barge being used.

Table 4.0 Standard jacket with 6 conductors - Pile segmentation details

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Table 5.0 Standard jacket with 12 conductors - Pile segmentation details

Discussion and conclusion

This paper explores the feasibility of formulation of rules for jacket design using a domain approach.
Rules can be formulated with empherical formulae combined with database interpolation. The rules thus
formed can be utilized to determine the governing parameters affecting the jacket design and hence
reducing the number of variables. Standard jackets can then be configured using these rules and reduced
variables. Using rules, jacket weight estimates with an accuracy of +/-20% can be generated.

Analyzing the standard jacket, the rules developed can be finetuned to improve the weight estimation
accuracy to +/-5% along with the marine spread inputs. Using this rule and standard jacket design concept,
pilot project concentrates on well-head platform jackets up to 60m water depth, located in middle east
region. Fine-tuned rules and the standard jacket designed for middle east can be used to cover more global
regions for the shallow water jacket considered without creating additional database.

The objective of developing standard jackets is to automate the design, construction method and
installation method thereby helping in jackets which can be built the ‘Toyota way’.

Acknowledgement
The Authors would like to thank McDermott’s KMIR and Engineering management team for their
support, providing the encouragement in performing this assessment. The McDermott Structural team
members’ efforts in reviewing and fine-tuning the paper contents are highly appreciated. The authors are
grateful to the reviewers for their constructive comments.

References
[1] SACS – Structural Analysis Computer System, Bentley Systems
[2] API RP 2A, 22nd Edition - Planning, Designing, and Constructing, Fixed Offshore Platforms—
Working, Stress Design
[3] DNVGL-ST-N001 - Marine operations and marine warranty
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Appendix A - standard jacket configuration for water depths 5m to 60m

Figure A.1 Standard Jacket Configuration for water depth 5m to 15m

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Figure A.2 Standard Jacket Configuration for water depth 15m to 30m
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Figure A.3 Standard Jacket Configuration for water depth 30m to 37m
 15

Figure A.4 Standard Jacket Configuration for water depth 37m to 60m