HEBRON GRAVITY BASED STRUCTURE

PRESENTED BY:

ANUPRIYA P

Roll No: M180404CE

ENVIRONMENTAL GEOTECHNOLOGY

NIT CALICUT .
 INTRODUCTION

 Location :offshore Newfoundland and Labrador,

Canada ,350 kilometres southeast of
St. John's.
 Water depth : 93 metres (Mean Sea Level).
 Storage capacity : 1.2 million barrels of crude oil
 Topside weight : 65,000 tonnes.
 GBS base weight : 1,80,000 tonnes
 PROJECT AREAS

1) A near shore construction area at Bull Arm, Trinity

Bay

2) An offshore area located on the Grand Banks

where crude oil production occurs for minimum of
30 years.
 GEOLOGY

 The loose organic sediments were noted to be up to

1.7 m thick, and comprised predominantly
(50 to 60 percentage) of sand.

 The underlying till was noted to be a mix of sands,

gravels , cobbles and boulders, with variable amounts
of fine-grained sediment (silts and clays).
 GEOTECHNICAL DATA

52 boreholes were made and 4 soil types were identified

over the bed rock

1) Very loose to compact sand and gravel with organic

silt

2) Dense cobbles and boulders in sand, gravel and silt

matrix (TILL)
3) Compact to very dense sand and gravel, some silt

(TILL)

4)Stiff to hard silt and sand with some gravel to silty

clayey gravel and sand

Thicknesses of overburden soils ranged from

approximately 0.9 to 12 m.
 The near-shore survey area of the Bull Arm
Fabrication Site is characterized by varying
thicknesses of fill which overlay glacial tills and
occasional glacio-marine sediments.

 In areas where no fill was encountered (within tow

channel), glacial till was generally observed at the
seabed surface.
 BATHYMETRY

 1 to 2 m near shore

 260 and 300 m at the head of Trinity Bay.

 Bull Arm has a deep centre channel reaching depths

of over 200 m where it merges into Trinity Bay.
BATHYMETRY OF BULLARM
 MAJOR COMPONENTS
 Reinforced concrete gravity-based structure (GBS);

 Topsides structure with all systems and equipment

required to support drilling, processing, utilities, and
living quarters; and

 Offshore oil loading system (OLS) with a looped

pipeline and two separate loading stations about 2 km
(1.2 miles) from the GBS.
 MAIN FEATURES

 The GBS consists of a base, a caisson, and a single

shaft supporting the topsides structure.

 The overall diameter of the base slab (130 m [430 ft])

was governed by stability requirements and soil
bearing capacity.
 The shaft has an internal diameter of about 33 m (108 ft)
and houses 52 drilling conductors, risers/J-tubes, and
other mechanical outfitting systems.

 At the lower part of the caisson, cantilever walls were

used to stiffen the edge of foundation and provide
buoyancy.

 The base and top slabs of the GBS were designed as

unstiffened flat plates.
 Approximately 2,22,000 tonnes of solid ballast
(approximately 10 m thickness) was placed at the
bottom of oil storage and annulus cells which provides
floating stability during towing.

 The caisson houses seven oil storage cells, which are

protected against icebergs by an exterior reinforced
concrete wall (ice wall).
 MATERIALS

1) Concrete

2) Stone ballast

3) Reinforcement

4) Carbon steel mechanical outfitting

 VARIOUS DESIGN ASPECTS

1) Design for ice berg impact

2) Design for waves

3) Design for seismic events

4) Foundation design
 ANALYSIS AND DESIGN

 The overall analysis was based on a Global Finite

Element Analysis (GFEA) using solid elements.

 Most analyses were based on linear elastic material

behaviour, which allowed the use of the superposition
principle to determine internal forces at the various
locations within the GBS.
 Reinforced concrete was designed based on Norwegian
Standard NS 3473:20031 and in accordance with the
limit state approach proposed in the ISO.

 The GBS was designed for a 50-year life cycle,

including the ability to be removed (remain structurally
intact with adequate floating stability) at the end of its
floating life.
 FOUNDATION DESIGN

 Failure modes considered in design were bearing,

overturning, and sliding (which governed).

 To increase the sliding resistance, 500 mm (20 in.)

deep steel skirts , which penetrated the weaker top
most soil layer, were installed below the base slab.
 Furthermore, the GBS base slab was cast directly
against a coarse aggregate bed in the dry dock to
increase roughness between the slab and the seabed.

 Under-base grouting was not needed because the

geophysical survey data indicated an almost-flat
seabed.
 As a result, the base slab was designed to resist local
peak soil pressures, which in turn governed
reinforcement density for several localized areas.

 The underside of the base slab was fitted with soil

drain filters (connected to the sea) to prevent
possible pore pressure build up in the soil under the
GBS.
 REFERENCE
1) Oberlies, R.; Khalifa, J.; Huang, J.; Hetland, S.; Younan, A.; Over- stake, M.;
and Slocum, S., “Determination of Wave Impact Loads for the Hebron
Gravity Based Structure (GBS),” ASME 2014 33rd International Conference
on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, V. 1A: Offshore Technology,
2014.

2) Widianto; Khalifa, J.; Younan, A.; Karlsson, T.; Stuckey, P.; and Gjorven, A.,
“Design of Hebron Gravity Based Structure for Iceberg Impact,
” Proceedings of the Twenty-third (2013) International Offshore and Polar
Engineering, Anchorage, AK, June 30-July 5, 2013, pp. 1127-1134.