Sensitivity analysis of jacket-type offshore platforms under extreme waves

Jacket-type offshore platforms play an important role in oil and gas industries in shallow and intermediate water depths such as Persian Gulf region. Such important structures need accurate considerations in analysis, design and assessment procedures. In this paper, nonlinear response of jacket-type platforms against extreme waves is examined utilizing sensitivity analyses. Results of this paper can reduce the number of random variables and consequently the computational effort in reliability analysis of jacket platforms, noticeably. Effects of foundation modeling have been neglected in majority of researches on the response of jacket platforms against wave loads. As nonlinear response of the pile foundation is one of the most important sources of potential nonlinearity in the response of offshore platforms, in this study, a powerful model which is able to consider Pile-Soil-Structure Interaction (PSSI) is employed. Therefore, PSSI parameters as well as other parameters such as uncertainties in the prediction of the wave force on jacket structure and uncertainties in structural model are utilized in sensitivity analyses. In this research, pushover methods as well as an advanced approach named "Incremental Wave Analysis (IWA)" are employed. Consequently, collapse prevention limit state of jacket platforms is investigated through different outcomes of pushover and IWA methods including Reserve Strength Ratio, ultimate capacity, collapse displacement and Collapse Wave Height indicators. In order to consider the effects of correlation between random variables, a robust method of sensitivity analysis named correlation coefficient approach is also employed. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.