Failure envelops analysis for square mudmat foundations on undrained clays under three-dimensional loading

ABSTRACT

As the permanent submarine support structures for subsea wells, pipeline manifolds and pipeline terminations, the mudmat foundation works under obviously complex, nonlinear and uncertain loading, which makes a great challenge for the research of the stability of mudmat foundation. In this paper, finite element method is utilised to investigate the behaviour of square mudmat foundation without embedment in NC clay to fully 3D loading conditions: V-H-M and V-H-T. According to the analysis results, the relevant failure envelop surfaces and formulas are proposed to predict the capacity of mudmat foundation. These results could be treated as reference for the design work of the mudmat foundation.

KEYWORDS:

• Subsea production system
• mudmat foundation
• combined load
• failure envelop
• clay

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Research Institutes (TKS20200103) and the key science and technology project of transportation industry in 2020 (2020-ZD6-047).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Research Institutes [Grant Number TKS20200103]; the key science and technology project of transportation industry in 2020 [Grant Number 2020-ZD6-047].