The number of subsea production systems placed in deepwater locations in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) has increased significantly in the last ten to fifteen years. Currently, API-RP2A (2000 a,b) designates the GOM as a low seismic zone, and thus does not require seismic effects to be considered during the design process. However, there have been a number of seismic events with Richter magnitudes between 3.0 and 4.9 that have occurred in this region. As a result, questions have been raised regarding the seismic performance of deepwater subsea systems. This thesis presents an analytical parametric study where a prototype subsea structure was selected based on a survey of subsea systems. The baseline analytical model consisted of a single casing embedded in soft clay soils, which supported a lumped mass at a cantilevered height above the soil. A number of the model characteristics were varied in the parametric study to simulate the structural response of a range of subsea structures. This thesis discusses the impact of API-RP2A Zone 1 and 2 design seismic demands for the performance of subsea structures. The results from the subsequent analyses show that the stresses and deflections produced by the Zone 1 and 2 peak ground accelerations fall within the allowable limits.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TEXASAandM/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/30 |
| Date | 30 September 2004 |
| Creators | Brown, Laura Ann |
| Contributors | Hueste, Mary Beth, Bracci, Joseph, Murff, J. Don, Scott, Stuart |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | 2678815 bytes, 191260 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, text/plain, born digital |
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