Cone penetrometer-based spudcan penetration prediction in uncemented carbonate sand

Installation of offshore platforms in carbonate soils is challenging, asevidenced by numerous incidents and accidents. The installation process ofmobile jack-up drilling rigs is no exception. The prevalence of these soils insome oil and gas producing regions, such as offshore Australia, necessitates thorough understanding of the foundation behaviour as well as prediction methods capable of capturing the salient features. This contribution therefore develops a method to predict footing penetration in uncemented carbonate sand.The method directly correlates the cone penetrometer tip resistance with the footing load-penetration, i.e. without the requirement of selection of a friction angle. The development is based on centrifuge model experiments aswell as large deformation finite element analyses incorporating an advanced constitutive model for the soil. The direct use of in situ site investigation data increases the confidence in load-penetration predictions for rig moves in these challenging soil conditions, while at the same time reducing the time required to obtain a prediction.