industry links onwards

Industry links

PHOTO COURTESY OF JOAN COSTA

38 | cofs.uwa.edu.au

Subsea 7 – Hybrid foundation design under general multi-dimensional loadingCollaborative research led by Susan Gourvenec, Mark Randolph and Xiaowei Feng at COFS, Regis Wallerand at Subsea 7 and Paul Dimmock at BP continued to focus on the optimisation of subsea mudmat foundations under loading in 6 degree-of-freedom in 2013.

The design methodology for optimising multi-directional capacity of subsea mudmats proposed by Feng at al. (2014) has been extended to incorporate seabeds with a surface crust, and hybrid mudmats augmented with corner pin piles (Figure 33). Design guidance has also been developed to determine optimal internal skirt spacing within a skirted mudmat foundation (Figure 34) to achieve similar capacity to a solid embedded foundation.

Industry linksSubsea 7 – Centrifuge modelling the axial friction of mooring chainsSam Stanier and David White continued their collaboration with Paul Brunning from Subsea7 in 2013 to investigate the axial friction of seabed infrastructure including pipelines and mooring chains. Preliminary ‘proof-of-concept’ tests on chain-seabed interaction were performed in the COFS’s beam centrifuge on silica sand using a newly developed test rig shown in Figure 30. The apparatus consists of a ~200mm length of chain supported and actuated to simulate self-weight induced embedment during cycles of axial sliding. At 30g the chain tested is broadly representative of the size of mooring chains that are being planned for the Prelude FLNG vessel and other large floaters in Australia’s cyclone alley. These tests showed the evolution of seabed friction, addressing the uncertainty in design. Figure 31 shows the final embedment of the chain after a series of cycles. Meanwhile, an ROV-mounted tool for measuring seabed friction in situ has been developed with Subsea7 (Figure 32). This device underwent onshore testing during 2013 and is currently awaiting an opportunity to be used offshore.

Figure 32: Our ROV-based seabed friction tool undergoing testing on the James Oval.

Figure 30: Mooring chain axial resistance test rig for the beam centrifuge.

Figure 31: Buried mooring chain after a series of cyclic axial movements at 30g.

Figure 33: Hybrid subsea mudmats and external loads in six degree-of-freedom.

The University of Western Australia | 39

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. Ltd. (DSME) is one of the world’s largest builders of ships and structures for the offshore oil and gas industry. In early 2013, DSME organised a meeting between Dr Hang Sub Urm, Executive Vice President, Head of DSME R&D Institute and Shazzad Hossain to initiate collaborations with COFS on offshore foundation systems. This led to a project on spudcan foundations – Spudcan-soil interaction during building a jack-up rig at DSME shipyard (investigators: Shazzad Hossain, Youngho Kim, Jingbin Zheng, Stefanus Safinus). As part of this project, Dr Jonghwa Won from DSME will be visiting COFS for 5 months starting from March 2014.

STABLEpipe JIPDuring 2013 collaboration with Woodside and Chevron continued through the STABLEpipe Joint Industry Project (JIP). This project focuses on subsea pipeline stabilisation, which presently represents a massive cost for oil and gas developments offshore Australia. The onerous metocean conditions mean that pipelines require primary and secondary stabilisation, which may take the form of concrete pipeline coating or rock dumping. The STABLEpipe work utilises the award winning closed circuit (O-Tube) flumes developed at UWA. The O-Tube flumes and the STABLEpipe JIP are discussed in more detail in the Offshore Geohazards and Sediment Mobility research stream report.

Industry Short CourseAn Introduction to Offshore Geotechnical Engineering Susan Gourvenec coordinated another successful short course for industry in 2013. 25 delegates from major oil and gas operators, consultants and contractors from WA, interstate and overseas attended a 2-day short course for industry personnel covering geotechnical aspects of offshore design. Professors Susan Gourvenec, David White and Antonio Carraro presented theory and case studies covering topics including: ÌÌ Soil conditions in major offshore regions; ÌÌ Offshore geohazards; ÌÌ Site investigation planning and techniques; ÌÌ Pile foundations; ÌÌ Shallow foundations; ÌÌ Anchoring systems, andÌÌ Pipelines.

Figure 34: Optimal internal skirt spacing for a vertical load mobilisation ranging from 0.25 to 0.5.

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Figure 35: delegates on the industry short course.


Keppel Offshore and Marine Technology (KOMtech), SingaporeThe link with Keppel Offshore and Marine Technology (KOMtech), Singapore, is continuing through numerous short term consultancy projects and long term ARC Linkage projects, and through the interaction on the International Standard Organisation’s committee on jack-ups. Recent long term research collaborations through ARC Linkage projects include hybrid foundation systems, direct CPT to spudcan design approach.

Through short term consultancy projects, in 2011, Mark Randolph provided high level advice in respect of potential impact forces between the seabed and the spudcan foundations of mobile jack-up units, as a result of the dynamic motion of the jack-up unit; in 2012, Britta Bienen provided expertise on the capacity of skirted spudcans under combined loading based on a numerical study; in 2012, Christophe Gaudin and Conleth O’Loughlin investigated the feasibility and performance of a novel design of spudcan foundation featuring peripheral skirt with side openings, with the aim of achieving the required fixities against combined vertical, horizontal and moment loading in clay over sand deposits. In addition, Christophe Gaudin spent two weeks in Keppel, working with Okky Purwana and Michael Perry to evaluate the potential of suction caissons to support self-installing platforms in shallow waters.

Lloyd’s RegisterLloyd’s Register (LR), Aberdeen, have teamed up with COFS to investigate suction bucket foundations for offshore wind energy installations in layered soils. The number of offshore wind farm developments has rapidly grown recently, particularly in Europe and China. To date, most of the installations are in relatively shallow water, founded on monopiles. However, alternative foundation concepts, such as suction buckets, are increasingly considered. The research on suction buckets to date has focused on single layer soils and monotonic or short to mid-term cyclic loading. The PhD research conducted by Fangyuan Zhu and sponsored by LR focuses on foundation stiffness (taking into account caisson installation and long-term cyclic loading), which is critical to the evaluation of the response of the entire system. Over the course of the research, Fangyuan will visit LR in Aberdeen, which will not only strengthen collaborative ties but also provide direct insight into practical issues facing the industry.

Vryhof Anchors – DEPLADuring 2013 COFS assigned the rights to the Dynamically Embedded Plate Anchor (DEPLA) to Vryhof Anchors. The DEPLA, which was developed by Conleth O’Loughlin and Dr Mark Richardson, is a hybrid anchor that combines the installation advantages of dynamically installed “torpedo anchors” with the capacity advantages of vertically loaded plate anchors. The concept has been proven both at laboratory scale in the geotechnical centrifuges at COFS and in 1:4.5 reduced scale trials at sea. As Vyrhof CEO Øyvind Wathne explains: “We are extremely happy with the addition! It will give us a reliable product for ultra-deep water uses that will help our clients reduce their overall mooring costs. The DEPLA combines the advantages of dynamically installed anchors and vertically loaded anchors and is fully patented”. COFS continues to assist Vryhof along the next steps towards designing and testing a full scale prototype DEPLA.

Figure 37: The 1:1.45 reduced scale model DEPLA with, from left to right: Conleth O’Loughlin (COFS), Senol Ozmutle (Vryhof Anchors), Christophe Gaudin (COFS), Joris Roozen (Vryhof Anchors). Front row: Tom Schnepple (UWA).

Figure 36: The Dynamically Embedded Plate Anchor.


Hyundai Engineering & Construction, KoreaDelegates from Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd, based in Korea, recently visited COFS to investigate collaborative opportunities. The Director of Hyundai Engineering and Construction’s Research and Development Division, Mr Yung-Ho Park, along with Chief Research Engineers, Dr Ju-Hyung Ha and Mr Se-Jin Lee, toured COFS’ centrifuge and research facilities.

During the visit, Mark Cassidy and Shazzad Hossain discussed ways of developing future research initiatives together with Hyundai. At the conclusion of the successful visit, Hyundai and COFS agreed to further technical cooperation through joint research and to work towards a long term research collaboration. A memorandum of understanding was signed between R&D Division, Hyundai Engineering & Construction, Korea and COFS, UWA.

Figure 38: Hyundai Engineering and Construction representatives touring the COFS lab.

Building for the future: the Lloyd’s Register Foundation Centre of ExcellenceSupport from Lloyd’s Register Foundation (LRF) has enabled The Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems at UWA to make important investments in early career academics, establishing a Chair in Offshore Foundations, four academic appointments and providing additional funding to 10 PhD students.

Lloyd’s Register Foundation supports three critical areas of research at COFS: deep water engineering, risk and reliability assessment and marine renewable energy. Projects within these research streams are closely aligned with industry research priorities and will provide

Figure 39: Key personnel of the LRF Research Centre of Excellence. L-R: Xiaowei Feng, Chao Han, Lucile Quéau, Henning Mohr, Britta Bienen, Stefanus Safinus, Mark Cassidy, Somaye Sadeghian, Xiaojun Li, Mark Randolph, Scott Draper, Jiajei Ma, Simon Leckie, Jalal Mirzadehniasar.

The Foundation helps to protect life and property by supporting engineering-related education, public engagement and the application of research.

critical advancements in offshore engineering research. Over the last year, for instance, 48 Journal papers and 25 international conference papers have been published by the researchers funded by the LRF Centre of Excellence (CoE).

A major objective of the LRF Research CoE is to be a focal point for postgraduate research training. We have currently 10 LRF Top-up PhD Scholarships working on projects in all three areas of deep water engineering, renewable energy and risk. These students were highly ranked within the UWA scholarship cohort during the admissions process. All are now funded with a top-up LRF Scholarship of $15,000 per annum.


International collaboration


Scott Draper has also collaborated on a review paper in marine energy, written in collaboration with researchers at the University of Otago, New Zealand, and Imperial College London, UK.

Hamburg University of Technology, GermanyBritta Bienen continued the international collaboration with Hamburg University of Technology, Germany, working on a number of projects and applications ranging from renewable energy to oil and gas, all resulting in jointly authored papers. These include investigation of the effect of variation of the loading direction on the displacement accumulation of large diameter piles under cyclic lateral loading in sand with Christina Rudolph and the plugging behaviour of open-ended piles with Sascha Henke. A direct correlation method for the prediction of footing load-penetration curves from CPT profiles was introduced in a paper published in Applied Ocean Research jointly authored by Tim Pucker, Britta Bienen and Sascha Henke. The performance of the method was evaluated using field data in a paper presented jointly with Dr David Edwards of DNV GL Noble Denton at the 14th International Conference The Jack-Up Platform – Design, Construction and Operation in London.

Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, NorwayDavid White continued to collaborate with the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute on pipe-soil interaction, drawing on results from large scale model testing performed in Oslo (see Figure 41). Papers were authored with Tom Langford, Vaughan Meyer and Victor Smith, providing advice on the assessment of pipeline embedment, equalisation and axial sliding resistance.

Far Eastern Federal University (Vladivostok) and Russian Academy of ScienceIn 2013 Boris Tarasov continued the intensive collaboration with Russian academics on development of an alternative concept of hard rock instability in conditions of seismogenic depths. Two groups of Russian scientists visited COFS in March and June. Vladimir Makarov and his PhD student Andrey Golosov from Far Eastern Federal University (Vladivostok) participated in experiments conducted on the super-stiff triaxial testing machine which was used in connection with a unique acoustic emission apparatus designed by the visitors. Another group of visitors, Mikhail Guzev, Vladimir Sadovskiy (see Figure 40) and Alexander Losev, representatives of Russian Academy of Science – Institute for Applied Mathematics (Vladivostok) and Institute of Computational Modelling (Krasnoyarsk) – participated in the development of numerical models of the recently identified fan-hinged shear rupture mechanism responsible for earthquake instability. The work was continued when Boris visited the Russian Institutes in Krasnoyarsk and Vladivostok in October.

International collaboration

Figure 40: Russian Professors Mikhail Guzev and Vladimir Makarov with Boris Tarasov.

University of Oxford, UKScott Draper continued collaboration with the University of Oxford to study tidal stream power, a topic currently receiving significant attention in the UK. Work was undertaken with Thomas Adcock, Guy Houlsby and Alistair Borthwick. The collaborative work has focused on assessing the power potential of some the UK’s most well-known tidal current locations, including the Pentland Firth. The work has been reported widely in the UK and in Scottish parliament.

Fundamental work has also been completed between Scott Draper and Takafumi Nishino (University of Oxford) to better understand how arrangement of numerous wind and tidal turbines affects power capture. This work has extended classic analytical methods established in the 1910s. Figure 41: large scale model testing performed.


GeoWAVE project, European UnionConleth O’Loughlin, Christophe Gaudin and Shiao Huey Chow continued their collaboration with University of Dundee (Scotland) and University College Cork (Ireland) on the GeoWAVE project, funded by the European Union FP7 programme. GeoWAVE addresses mooring and anchoring solutions for floating wave energy devices and involves five industry partners, Pelamis Wave Power, Deep Sea Anchors, Seaflex, Lloyd’s Register and Cathie Associates. The role of COFS in GeoWAVE is to investigate anchor types suitable for sand that are cost effective so that they can readily be deployed on a commercial wave farm with potentially up to 100 wave energy devices, whilst being technically efficient at withstanding long term cyclic loading.

2013 collaborative journal publications

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Papers with international authors

Papers with non-UWA authors

Total journal publications


Visitors46 | cofs.uwa.edu.au

David Muir Wood University of Dundee, ScotlandJanuary – February 2013 and October – December 2013David worked with James Doherty and other COFS researchers on developing a rational constitutive model that is capable of reproducing important aspects of the mechanical and chemical response of cemented paste backfill to enable the reliable prediction of applied barricade stresses during filling as well as predicting the long term in-situ strength.

DengFeng Fu School of Civil Engineering, Tianjin University, ChinaJanuary – July 2013 Dengfeng was a visiting PhD student working with Christophe Gaudin on research into the installation and capacity of deep penetrating (known as torpedo) anchors. Dengfeng recently enrolled as a COFS PhD student.

Dongxue HaoSchool of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Northeast Dianli University, ChinaJune 2013 – June 2014 Dongxue is working with Christophe Gaudin and other COFS researchers conducting research into the bearing capacity of offshore foundations under combined loading.

Elaheh Kashizadeh ARC CoE for Geotechnical Science and Engineering, University of Newcastle, AustraliaFebruary 2013 – October 2014Elaheh is spending part of her PhD conducting research on Computational Methods for Evolutionary Plasticity Problems, with her supervisors Sam Stanier and David White at COFS.

VisitorsAleksandr Losev Institute for Applied Mathematics, Russian Academy of Sciences, RussiaJuly 2013 Alexsandr collaborated with Boris Tarasov on developing a computational model of the recently identified self-unbalancing fan-head shear rupture mechanism.

Andrei Golosov Far Eastern Federal University, RussiaMay 2013Andrei worked with Boris Tarasov on research into non linear oscillatory processes of high stressed rock failure preparation, using both numerical and experimental techniques.

Christina Rudolph Institute of Geotechnical Engineering and Construction Management, Hamburg University of Technology, GermanyJanuary – March 2013Christina returned to COFS to complete some centrifuge testing from her previous visit last year.

Cyrus TodeshkejoeiARC CoE for Geotechnical Science and Engineering, University of Newcastle, AustraliaOctober 2013 – October 2015Cyrus is spending the remainder of his PhD at COFS to conduct centrifuge tests on helical anchors with his COFS supervisors Christophe Gaudin and Sam Stanier. His research topic is ‘Capacity of multi-helix screw anchor foundations’.

D. Vaughan Griffiths Colorado School of Mines, USAJuly 2013 Vaughan visited COFS as part of the Centre of Excellence in Geotechnical Science in Engineering collaboration.

Fangyuan Zhu Department of Geotechnical Engineering, Tongji University, ChinaAugust 2013 – February 2014 Fangyuan conducted research with Britta Bienen on on suction bucket foundations for offshore wind energy installations in layered soils. Fangyuan recently enrolled as a COFS PhD student.

Feng Yuan Geotechnical Engineering Institute, Zhejang University, ChinaAugust 2013 Feng Yuan returned to COFS to finalise and complete the research that was conducted with David White

COFS visit Christina Rudolph

“In 2011 and 2013 I was staying at COFS to conduct centrifuge experiments. Apart from the treat of swapping a European winter with an Australian summer I have enjoyed these visits a lot. Doing the experiments was very exciting work and luckily I had a lot of support (special thanks to Britta and Manuel!). The results from testing will be part of my PhD thesis (which I plan to submit soon – knock on wood) and a few papers. I’d like to thank all of you for the warm welcome and the friendly atmosphere during work, coffee break, lunchtime etc. It was also great to meet you again in January for the ICPMG conference.”


“I visited COFS/UWA for two periods of 6 weeks in early and late 2013. I chose the dates to try and avoid the snow in Scotland – but the snow came after my return in March and has come not at all during this present winter.

“On my second visit I had the great honour of being officially designated the inaugural Martin Fahey Visiting Fellow. It seems that length of beard is probably the primary selection criterion. I have known Martin since he was a research student in Cambridge sometime in the last century so it was a particular pleasure to receive this title.

“My visits to COFS/UWA passed very rapidly. In order to engage with postgraduate students and anybody else who might be interested, I organised a couple of ‘master classes’ with the intention that researchers should share their research challenges and experiences with my role being one of facilitator

Professor David Muir Wood (left) with Martin Fahey.

David Muir WoodA visitor’s perspective on COFS

or commentator. I fear that many of those who came found the concept threatening.

“I found the interaction with colleagues in COFS/UWA extremely stimulating and only wish I had the time and energy to follow up all the interesting leads. However, particular themes of modelling cemented materials, attempting to understand the intricacies of vermiculate artefacts seen in particle image velocimetry, and attempting to develop simple models to describe the axisymmetric exfoliation around piles (the onion skin effect) are ongoing and, we hope, will shortly lead to submitted publications.

“Thank you to all those who made my stays in Perth possible and enjoyable – both inside and outside the tea-room.”

David Muir WoodMonikie, Angus, UKApril 2014

during his previous visit to COFS (which was from September 2011 to August 2012). The research work involved exploring the influence of pipeline embedment on the time-scale of consolidation and also how the axial friction depends on the rate of movement and elapsed time.

Guan Tor Lim Malaysia October 2013 – March 2014 Guan worked with Nathalie Boukpeti and Antonio Carraro on the influence of sample disturbance on intermediate soils characterisation, and recently enrolled as a COFS PhD student.

Guanlin Ye Department of Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, ChinaAugust 2013 – July 2014 As Shanghai Jiao Tong University plans to acquire a new drum centrifuge device, Guanlin visited COFS to gain expertise in centrifuge testing.

James Cox University of Bristol, EnglandJanuary – May 2013 James visited COFS to conduct some centrifuge tests on the cyclic loading of skirted caissons.

James Hambleton Research Associate, ARC CoE for Geotechnical Science and Engineering, University of Newcastle, AustraliaSeptember – December 2013James visited COFS during his Sabbatical, as part of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Geotechnical Science in Engineering research collaboration.

Leo Hyde University of Southampton, EnglandJanuary – July 2013 Leo continued to conduct research with Conleth O’Loughlin on offshore foundation systems.


Mikhail Guzev Professor, Institute for Applied Mathematics, Russian Academy of Sciences, RussiaJuly 2013 Mikhail collaborated with Boris Tarasov on developing a computational model of the recently identified self-unbalancing fan-head shear rupture mechanism.

Paul Taylor Department of Engineering Science, Oxford, EnglandAugust 2013Paul briefly visited COFS and presented a seminar called ‘Current blockage on offshore jacket structures: wave-current-structure interactions give smaller forces’.

Raffaele Ragni Universita degli Studi di Perugia, ItalyMarch – June 2013Raffaele collaborated with Britta Bienen and other COFS researchers on predicting the foundation performance of offshore jack-up drilling rigs in intermediate soils. Raffaele recently enrolled as a COFS PhD student.

Alexander Puzrin ETH Zurich, SwitzerlandJanuary 2013 Alexander collaborated with Mark Randolph on his joint Australian Research Council project on submarine landslides.

Søren Madsen Department of Civil Engineering, Aalborg University, DenmarkApril – June 2013 Søren worked with Mark Randolph and other COFS researchers on instability during installation of offshore foundations, mainly bucket foundations or suction caissons.

Tao Zhou Hunan University, ChinaFebruary 2013 – February 2014Tao collaborated with Yinghui Tian on numerical and centrifuge

Liang Zhao PhD candidate, School of Civil Engineering, Tianjin University, ChinaMarch 2013 – March 2014 Liang collaborated with Christophe Gaudin and Mark Randolph on the research project Steel catenary risers (SCRs) dynamic failure.

Malcolm Bolton Director of Schofield Centre, Professor of Soil Mechanics, Cambridge University, EnglandOctober 2013Malcolm visited COFS briefly whilst he was in Australia presenting the 52nd Rankine Lecture – Performance-based design in geotechnical engineering.

Marco Uzielli CEO and Technical Director, Georisk, ItalyJanuary – February 2013Marco continued his work with Mark Cassidy, Yinghui Tian and Lisa Li, concentrating on the probabilistic techniques for assessing punch-through potential of jack-up platforms and the variability of shallow foundation combined loading envelopes.

Marina Schnaider BortolottoCNPq Fellow, Science Without Borders Program, BrazilOctober 2012 – January 2014Marina was awarded one of the prestigious Science Without Borders fellowships from the Brazilian government to study abroad as part of her undergraduate course in Civil Engineering. She worked with Antonio Carraro and assisted with the installation of the new state-of-the-art resonant column apparatus of the Geotechnical Testing Laboratory at COFS. Marina conducted research on the effect of mineralogy on the stiffness degradation and material damping of sands.

modelling of offshore pipe-soil Interaction.

Tom AdcockOxford University, EnglandDecember 2013 – January 2014Tom came back after visiting COFS in 2012 to continue his research collaboration with Scott Draper on basin scale modelling of energy extraction from tidal streams.

Toru Watanabe Taisei Architectural Research Institute, Yokohama, JapanMarch 2012 – February 2014Toru collaborated with Mark Randolph and Susan Gourvenec on the Subsea 7 project Hybrid foundation design under general multi-dimensional loading.

Vladimir Makarov Far Eastern Federal University, RussiaApril – May 2013Vladimir collaborated with Boris Tarasov on research into non linear oscillatory processes of high stressed rock failure preparation, which involved both experimental and theoretical research.

Vladimir Sadovskiy Professor, Institute for Computational Modeling, Russian Academy of Sciences, RussiaJuly 2013Vladimir collaborated with Boris Tarasov on developing a computational model of the recently identified self-unbalancing fan-head shear rupture mechanism.

Wangcheng Zhang Department of Geotechnical Engineering, Tongji University, ChinaAugust 2013 – May 2014 Wangcheng is working with Dong Wang and Mark Randolph on the ARC Discovery Project ‘Dynamic evolution of submarine slides and consequences for offshore developments’.


Conferences50 | cofs.uwa.edu.au

rock at extremely high confining stresses, resulting in many fruitful discussions with fellow researchers.

7th International Conference on Material Structure and Micromechanics of Fracture, Brno, Czech Republic, 1 – 3 JulyBoris also attended the 7th International Conference on Material Structure and Micromechanics of Fracture in Brno, Czech Republic. There he presented work on a mathematical model of fan-head shear rupture mechanisms.

23rd International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference, Anchorage, Alaska, 30 June – 5 JulyMuhammad Shazzad Hossain attended the 23rd International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference in Anchorage, Alaska along with former COFS visitors Professors Colin Leung (NUS, Singapore) and Fu-Ping Gao (Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing). The conference included around ten sessions on Geotechnical Engineering – one of which was chaired by Shazzad.

Two papers involving COFS authors (Jingbin Zheng, Dong Wang, Scott Draper and Shazzad Hossain) were included in the proceedings. Shazzad presented a paper on three dimensional finite element analysis of spudcan and cone penetration on multi-layered clays. Whilst in Alaska, Shazzad took the opportunity to go and see some glaciers.

Australian Gas Technology Conference, Perth, Australia, 1– 3 JulyCOFS was strongly represented at AGT 2013 with David White, Conleth O’Loughlin, Sam Stanier, Yue Yan, Henning Mohr and Beau Whitney all attending. The opening session of the Australian Gas Technology Conference included a keynote given by Dave on “Australian R&D in offshore engineering for economic gas projects, locally and globally”. This presentation highlighted the successful industry impact of various projects at UWA, including COFS’ work on foundations and anchoring as well as the O-Tube project. During the conference dinner, UWA’s twin entries for the AGT innovation award were named joint winners, as described elsewhere in this report.

8th International Symposium on Rockburst and Seismicity in Mines, Saint Petersburg to Moscow, Russia, 1 – 7 SeptemberBoris Tarasov was present at RaSiM8 where the majority of the participants represented different deep mines around the World, including ultra-deep South African mines. This provided a forum to exchange information on both fundamental and practical aspects of rockburst

ConferencesAustralian Oil and Gas Conference, Perth, Australia, 20 – 22 FebruaryAs might be expected for a local conference many COFS researchers attended AOG 2013 including, David White, Scott Draper, Santiram Chatterjee and Sam Stanier. During the event both David White and Scott Draper gave presentations on recent research relevant to the offshore gas industry in Australia.

2nd Oxford Tidal Energy Workshop, Oxford, UK, 18 – 19 MarchOn another visit to the UK in 2013, Scott Draper presented some work on the tidal energy resource of the Bristol Channel in the UK. Almost all UK based researchers working on marine renewable energy attend this workshop and the event runs for two days in Oxford.

Installation Effects in Geotechnical Engineering Conference, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 24 – 27 MarchDavid White and Chao Han represented COFS at the GeoINSTALL conference on installation effects in geotechnical engineering that was held in Rotterdam during March 2013. The conference was the climax of a 3 year EU project and featured a keynote given by Dave on subsea pipelines. This keynote summarised almost 10 years of COFS research into pipeline-seabed interaction. His presentation highlighted the influence of the pipeline installation process on all subsequent in-service behaviour, including buckling, walking and hydrodynamic stability.

Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, USA, 6 – 9 MayThe Offshore Technology Conference, held at the Reliant Park in Houston hosted 105,000 delegates at the conference and industry exhibition. COFS staff Susan Gourvenec, Christophe Gaudin and Muhammad Shazzad Hossain were amongst the delegates, combining the technical sessions with the opportunity to meet with International industry partners and participate in their committee roles for the International Standard Organisation and the American Petroleum Institute. Mark Randolph also attended OTC in spirit as he co-authored a paper on modelling the touchdown zone for steel catenary risers and its effect on fatigue, which in Mark’s absence was presented to the delegates by a co-author.

1st International Conference on Rock Dynamics, Lausanne, Switzerland, 6 – 8 JuneBoris Tarasov attended the inaugural International Conference on Rock Dynamics in Lausanne, Switzerland. There he presented work on the mechanical behaviour of


International Conference: The Jack-up Platform, London, UK, 17 – 18 SeptemberBritta Bienen and Youhu Zhang represented COFS at the annual Jack-up Platform Conference in London, UK. There, Youhu had the opportunity to present his comprehensive research on VHM loading in soft clays to the ISO committee for potential inclusion in the industry guidelines. Britta gave a presentation on research into the effect of pauses during jack-up installation that allow for local consolidation around the spudcan footings. Highlights from full drum centrifuge and half-box PIV tests were discussed. A potential future collaboration between Britta, David Edwards (DNV, Noble Denton), Tim Pucker (Hamburg University of Technology) and Sascha Henke (GuD Consulting, Berlin) was also instigated. The intended focus is on the application of the direct CPT-spudcan correlation approach to predict the installation resistance for footings for offshore wind installations.

Eurock 2013: ISRM International Symposium, Wroclaw, Poland, 21 – 26 SeptemberBoris Tarasov attended Eurock 2013 in what was a busy year for him in terms of conference travel. There, Boris presented a paper on the depth distribution of lithospheric strength determined by the self-unbalancing shear rupture mechanism.

Australian Conference on Computational Mechanics, Sydney, Australia, 3 – 4 OctoberShah Neyamat Ullah attended the inaugural ACCM conference at the University of Sydney, delivering a presentation on numerically modelling the lateral boundary effect in centrifuge tests for spudcan penetration in uniform clay.

10th European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference, Aalborg, Denmark, 2 – 5 SeptemberScott Draper attended EQTEC 2013, which provides a platform for academics to discuss and present the latest research in wave energy and tidal stream energy. There he presented experimental work conducted in collaboration with the Universities of Manchester, Oxford and GL Garrad Hassan at HR Wallingford in the UK. The experiments were the first attempt at modelling the flow around a complicated coastline (a headland) and model scale tidal turbines.

and induced seismicity problems. New information about failure mechanisms of hard rocks and sources of instability at great depths were presented by Boris, which provoked some very interesting discussions.

The symposium was held on a four-deck river cruise ship (see Figure 42) traveling from Saint-Petersburg to Moscow through a number of rivers, lakes and channels including Neva River, Svir River, Volga, Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega. The trip distance was about one thousand kilometers covered by the ship during seven days. This route was very familiar for Boris because forty three years ago he traveled the same way on a small rowing boat! The trip duration then was almost a month.

Figure 42: Two trips by boat, 43 years apart: one fast and one slow!

18th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Paris, France, 2 – 6 SeptemberAt the 18th ICSMGE Mark Randolph had the honour of giving the McClelland Lecture on Offshore Geotechnics. He gave a lecture to the delegation entitled ‘Analytical contributions to offshore geotechnical engineering’. Later in the proceedings Christophe Gaudin chaired the discussion session on Physical Modelling, in which David White provided the general report. Stefanus Safinus, Muhammad Shazzad Hossain and Mark Randolph presented a paper on the stress-strain behaviour of carbonate and silica sediments, while Xu Li, Yuxia Hu and David White presented a paper on a new large deformation capable constitutive model for dense sand. Last but not least, Yinghui Tian and Mark Cassidy presented a collaboration with Marco Uzielli of Georisk Engineering, Italy, on the probabilistic assessment of the bearing capacity of strip footings on spatially variable soil.


4th International Symposium on Geotechnical Safety and Risk, Hong Kong, China, 4 – 6 DecemberLisa Li represented COFS at the 4th ISGSR. This symposium is a continuation of a series of symposiums on geotechnical risk and reliability: in 2007 the 1st ISGSR was held in Shanghai, followed by the 2nd ISGSR in Gifu, Japan in 2009, and the 3rd ISGSR in Munich, Germany in 2011. Topics of discussion included geotechnical uncertainty and variability, geohazards, reliability and risk analysis, reliability-based design and limit state design in geotechnical engineering. Lisa presented a paper on the characterisation of three-dimensional random crack networks in soil using the CT test.

Biennial Lloyd’s Register Foundation workshop at Seoul National UniversityDuring April LRF Assistant Professors Scott Draper and Xiaowei Feng attended the bi-annual LRF workshop at Seoul National University. The workshop was an excellent experience and allowed both UWA researchers to better appreciate the depth and breadth of research being undertaken at the different research centres across the world. The workshop led to promising collaboration between UWA and the LRF CoEs at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and at the University of Aberdeen, UK, in particular. These opportunities are being followed up in 2014, with Mark Cassidy to visit NUS and Scott Draper to visit the LRF Centre of Excellence at the University of Aberdeen.

7th National Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics, Zhejiang University, China, 3 – 5 NovemberAt the invitation of Professors Yunmin Cheng and Bin Zhu, Mark Cassidy presented the 13th Zeng Guo-Xi Lecturer at the 7th National Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics (see Figure 43). The conference was attended by over 200 delegates and was held on the campus of Zhejiang University, PR China. The Zeng Guo-Xi Lecture was established in 2007 to mark the 90th birthday of Professor Zeng of Zhejiang University and to honour his great contribution to the development of geotechnical engineering in China.

Figure 43: Mark Cassidy giving the 13th Zeng Guo-Xi lecture at the 7th National Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics, Zhejiang, China.


From left to right: Qin Zhang, Scott Draper, Christophe Gaudin, Conleth O’Loughlin, Ian Finnie (Advanced Geomechanics), Susan Gourvenec, Henning Mohr, Lucile Quéau, Muhammad Shazzad Hossain, Cristina Vulpe, Xiaowei Feng.

32nd International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, Nantes, France, 9 – 14 JuneThe 32nd international conference for Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering 2013 (OMAE 2013 in short) took place in beautiful Nantes, which is located in West France on the Loire River inland from the Atlantic Coast. The conference kicked off with a dinner reception on a chilly Sunday evening at the Castle of the Dukes of Brittany. This setting provided the ideal opportunity for the COFS contingent (see Figure OMAE1) to catch up with old friends and researchers in the field.

Muhammad Shazzad Hossain, Youngho Kim, Dong Wang, Physical and numerical modelling of installation and pull-out of dynamically penetrating anchors in clay and silt. OMAE2013-10322

Omid Kohan, Mark Cassidy, Britta Bienen, Christophe Gaudin, Centrifuge experiments of spudcan extraction featuring top and on-bottom jetting. OMAE2013-10468.

Henning Mohr, Scott Draper & David White, Free field sediment mobility on Australia’s North West Shelf. OMAE2013-11490.

Conleth O’Loughlin, Anthony Blake, Dong Wang, Christophe Gaudin, Mark Randolph, The dynamically embedded plate anchor: results from an experimental, analytical and numerical study. OMAE2013-11571.

Lucile Quéau, Mehrdad Kimiaei, Mark Randolph, Lazy wave catenary risers: Scaling factors and analytical approximation of the static stress range in the touchdown zone. OMAE2013-10273.

Cristina Vulpe, Christophe Gaudin, Uniaxial bearing capacity factors and failure mechanisms for skirted spudcans. OMAE2013-10254.

Qin Zhang, Scott Draper, Liang Cheng, Hongwei An, Hongda Shi, Revisiting the mechanics of onset of scour below subsea pipelines in steady currents. OMAE2013-11334.

New COFS recruits Adriano Castelo and Hugh Wolgamot made first contact with their future colleagues from Western Australia. Adriano previously worked for five years as a pipeline engineer for Technitas and Intecsea in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and starts his PhD in March 2014 supervised by David White, Yinghui Tian and Mark Randolph. Hugh is taking up a research position in April 2014 at COFS after completing his DPhil in Ocean Engineering at Oxford University, UK. He will be working on the Shell EMI project with David White looking into wave-structure interaction and multiple-body responses of the FLNG-LNG carrier in offloading scenarios.

Good company, great food and wine surrounded by French history and mechanical marvels – this was a conference to remember!

The following day, the formal part of the conference began as usual with an opening ceremony and keynote lectures. Anne Courbot from TOTAL pointed out in her keynote some of the challenges the offshore industry faces in developing small and remote reservoirs, in inhospitable environments and new prospects located in water up to 4000 meters in depth. All of these future development prospects require game-changing technology breakthroughs, many of which COFS aims to contribute to providing to the industrial community through our research. During the technical sessions, many of the COFS attendees were afforded the opportunity to communicate their research outcomes to the audience. Many of these resulted in lively discussion with other researchers. In addition, Susan Gourvenec organised and chaired the session on ‘Offshore Geotechnics – Suction piles and spudcans’. Below is a list of all the presented papers from COFS with the speakers marked in bold:

Xiaowei Feng, Susan Gourvenec, Optimal shear key interval for offshore shallow foundation. OMAE2013-10118

Christophe Gaudin, Conleth O’Loughlin, Muhammad S. Hossain, Evan Zimmerman, Performance of dynamically installed anchors in calcareous silt. OMAE2013-10115.


SeminarsPHOTO COURTESY OF WOODSIDE


8 May 2013Professor Jayantha KodikaraMonash University, VictoriaNew Framework For Predicting Compacted Soil Behaviour

10 May 2013Dr Wensu ChenSchool of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, UWAExperimental and Numerical Studies of Novel Protective Panels against Blast and Impact Loadings

17 May 2013Dr Sam Stanier Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems, UWADevelopment of New PIV Apparatus in Centrifuge

24 May 2013Professor Jorg ImbergerCentre for Water Research, UWAReal-Time Management of Lakes to Optimise Flood Control, Bulk Water, Carbon Sequestration and Hydropower

31 May 2013Professor Antonio CarraroCentre for Offshore Foundation Systems, UWAFabric: a State Variable?

6 June 2013Dr Wenhua Zhao Shanghai Jiao Tong University, ChinaHydrodynamics of an FLNG System

26 July 2013Professor Vaughan GriffithsColorado School of Mines, USAFactors of Safety and Probabilities of Failure in Geotechnical Engineering

2 August 2013Mr Jun LiPhD student, School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, UWA

Seminars1 March 2013Associate Professor Chengwang LeiUniversity of Sydney, New South WalesBuoyancy Driven Flows: Research and Applications

8 March 2013 Associate Professor Daniela Ciancio School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, UWANot only morning teas: Recent Advances in Structural Engineering Research Topics at CRE School

15 March 2013Assistant Professor Dong WangCentre for Offshore Foundation Systems, UWANumerical Interpretation of Dissipation Tests for Piezoballs

22 March 2013Mr Chengcai Luo PhD student, School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, UWAEffect of Seabed Mobility on Pipeline Stability

12 April 2013Mr Yanyan ShaPhD student, School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, UWAAnalysis, Assessment and Mitigation of Barge Impact Load on Bridge Piers

19 April 2013Dr Mi ZhouSchool of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, UWABall Penetrometer Test in Layered Clays and in Centrifuge

26 April 2013Mr Mehran RahmanianPhD student, School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, UWAVortex Induced Vibrations of a Pipeline and Umbilical System

Development of a Simplified Numerical Method for Predicting Structural Response to Blast Loads

9 August 2013Mr Colm O’BeirnePhD student, Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems, UWA3min Thesis

Assistant Professor Fang WangSchool of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, UWAVulnerability Assessment of Offshore Oil and Gas Platforms Subject to Accidental Explosion and Fires

16 August 2013Professor Feng YuanZhejiang University, ChinaOffshore Pipeline Installation and Stability

23 August 2013Mr Benjamin TerradeMasters student, Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l’Etat, FranceSome Insights on the Shear Behaviour of Stabilised Rammed Earth

Mr Stefanus SafinusPhD student, Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems, UWAComparison of stress-strain behaviour of carbonate and silicate sediments

26 August 2013Professor Paul TaylorOxford University, UKCurrent Blockage on Offshore Jacket Structures: Wave-Current-Structure Interactions Give Smaller Forces

29 August 2013Assistant Professor Scott DraperCentre for Offshore Foundation Systems, UWACurrent Blockage Effects on Tidal and Wind Turbines


27 September 2013Mr Ehssan ZargarPhD student, Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems, UWAA detail study of Fluid-Soil-Riser interaction at Touch Down Zone (Part 1: A New Soil Model at TDZ)

11 October 2013Associate Professor Nicole JonesSchool of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, UWATowards a comprehensive understanding of the internal wave dynamics on the Australian North West Shelf

18 October 2013Mr David ReidPhD student, School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, UWAAssessing the accuracy of rezoning techniques in predicting historic liquefaction flow slides

6 September 2013Winthrop Professor Liang ChengSchool of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, UWAApplicability of DNV-RP-F109 for Small Diameter Pipelines

13 September 2013Dr Lisa LiCentre for Offshore Foundation Systems, UWAFailure mechanism and bearing capacity of footings buried at various depths in spatially random soils

20 September 2013Mr Feifei TongPhD student, School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, UWAA CFD investigation of the flow patterns around four circular cylinders

25 October 2013Ms Megan WalskePhD student, School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, UWAAn experimental study of cemented paste backfill

1 November 2013Winthrop Professor Mike EfthymiouCentre for Offshore Foundation Systems, UWASAKHALIN II Phase 2 PROJECT: Challenges of seismic and arctic environment

15 November 2013Dr James HambletonUniversity of Newcastle, New South WalesPloughing and cutting in soils: Modelling and Applications

Lloyd’s Register’s history of public benefit has set the tone of the organisation for over 250 years. As a Lloyd’s Register Foundation Centre of Excellence, COFS shares these values. To extend the impact of ground breaking research, we instituted an annual Oration (formerly The Lloyd’s Register Educational Trust Oration Australia, now the LRF Oration Australia) to share the work of international leaders in offshore engineering with our broader community. In May of 2013, Dr Suzanne Lacasse, Technical Director

of the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) gave the 2013 Lloyd’s Register Foundation Oration Australia on ‘Geotechnical Solutions for the Offshore Interweaving of Research and Practice.’ Her internationally recognised work in risk assessment and design has been pivotal in our risk and reliability assessment research stream. We look forward to further collaborations with NGI, and future LRF Orations expanding the reach of critical research in offshore geomechanics.

InvitationThe Lloyd’s Register Foundation Oration, Australia

Lloyd’s Register Foundation Oration, 27 May 2013


COFS in the news


COFS in the news

Media Outlet Title of Article

Antonio Carraro Prospect Magazine Offshore projects help seabed scientists chalk up record year

Bassem Youssef The Australian Pipeliner Keeping pipelines on the level

COFS National Mining Chronicle Focus on home grown talent

David White Engineers Australia (WA) Preparing for the next wave of LNG engineering

David White UWA media statement UWA breakthroughs lead undersea LNG Pipeline Innovation

David White Prospect Magazine Rankin the platform for research centre

Large O-Tube Australian Financial Review High-cost sector must adjust to compete globally

Lucile Queau Physics Organisation Riser fatigue insights to benefit offshore projects

Lucile Queau Science Network Western Australia

Riser fatigue insights to benefit offshore projects

Mark Cassidy ATSE Focus, Vol 180 Innovation partnerships underpinning Australia’s offshore energy developments

Mark Cassidy ARC 2013 Australian Laureate Recipient Mark Cassidy

Mark Cassidy UWA media statement Prestigious fellowship for oil and gas expert

Mark Cassidy Kalgoorlie Miner $3m fellowship for WA researcher

Mark Cassidy The West Australian Subsea stability crucial in gas game

Mark Cassidy ATSE Focus Magazine Innovation partnerships underpin offshore energy developments

Mike Efthymiou Weekend West, Perth Movers and shakers – Mike Efthymiou

Scott Draper University of Oxford media release

Pentland Firth could generate ‘almost half of Scotland’s electricity

Susan Gourvenec The Conversation (online) Without James Prices Point, what now for Browse Basin gas?

Susan Gourvenec Construction Magazine Options & implications of the JPP decision

Susan Gourvenec Bloomberg Sustainability Highest-paid workers driving Shell off Australian shores

Susan Gourvenec Macro Business Why won’t WA jump on board floating LNG?

Susan Gourvenec UWA Media Statement UWA research unlocks ‘stranded’ oil and gas reserves

Susan Gourvenec SPE News UWA to research new methods of unlocking stranded reserves

Susan Gourvenec ABC North West on air

Susan Gourvenec ABC News Project underway to improve construction of deep sea oil and gas pipelines for remote fields

Susan Gourvenec ABC News on air

Susan Gourvenec Mining Australia New research to unlock “stranded” oil and gas fields

Susan Gourvenec Ocean Hub Research could revolutionise deep-sea oil and gas field operations

Susan Gourvenec Energy News Bulletin UWA cracks stranded reserve code

Susan Gourvenec Pilbara News on air

Susan Gourvenec The Conversation (online) Explainer: What is floating liquefied natural gas?

Susan Gourvenec The Conversation (online) Why isn’t Western Australia on board with floating LNG?


Premier and Ministers visitTo mark UWA’s centenary, the WA State Premier, Colin Barnett, held a Cabinet meeting on the UWA Campus. The Premier and his Ministers were hosted at a luncheon, and then toured the University.

The Premier chose to visit COFS, and was shown around the centrifuge facilities before being briefed on our strategic direction and our engagement with local projects.


Awards and graduations


Australian Gas Technology Innovation AwardsCOFS research was awarded a double prize at the Australian Gas Technology Innovation Awards. In the pre-commercial category, UWA’s entries could not be separated by the judges and were announced as joint winners: the O-Tube Program, which is developing new methods for the design of subsea pipelines by accounting for ocean-pipeline-seabed interaction, and the Remote Intelligent Geotechnical Seabed Survey technology (RIGSS) which provide a new approach for the characterisation of the shallow layer of the seabed to determine the behaviour of pipelines when laid on soft, fine grained seabeds.

The O-Tube facility – designed in-house – is capable of simulating the effect of real cyclone events on the stability of subsea pipelines. The technology has proven an outstanding success making this the fourth award scooped by the O-Tube since it began operations three years ago.

RIGSS includes the hemiball and toroidal penetrometers and new technology derived from UWA’s centrifuge facilities to control these tools robotically at the seabed. A new JIP is planned around this technology, kicking off later in the year.

Australian Laureate FellowshipCOFS’ Director, Mark Cassidy was awarded Australia’s most prestigious research fellowship – the Australian Laureate Fellowship – which reflects the Commonwealth’s commitment to ‘support excellence in research by attracting world-class researchers and research leaders to key positions, and creating new rewards and incentives for the application of their talents in Australia’. Mark is the only researcher in WA to be made a 2013 Australian Laureate. His Fellowship – worth more than $3 million – is for his project New frontiers in offshore geotechnics: securing Australia’s energy future.

E.H. Davis lectureCOFS’ Director, Mark Cassidy was selected as the E.H. Davis Lecturer for 2012 by the National Committee of the Australian Geomechanics Society as having made a distinguished recent contribution to the theory and practice in geomechanics in Australia. The lecture commemorates the contributions to geomechanics by Professor Edward Hughson Davis. Mark’s lecture, given in 2013, presented a review of experimental and numerical methods to develop combined loading surfaces encapsulating plasticity models with practical applications for shallow foundations, suction embedded plate anchors, inverted conical spudcan footings of mobile jack-up platforms and shallowly embedded pipelines.

Western Australia’s Scientist of the YearCOFS’ founding Director, Mark Randolph was named Western Australia’s Scientist of the Year in 2013 for his contributions on the design of piled foundations, offshore foundations, anchoring systems and pipelines servicing the oil and gas industry in Western Australia. The award recognises the outstanding work of the state’s best scientists and science communicators and acknowledges Mark’s expertise in offshore geotechnical engineering which has contributed to pinning Perth as an international hub for the Oil and Gas industry.

Awards and graduationsAwards

Figure 44: Shazzad accepting the award from Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett.

Early Career Scientist of the YearCOFS’ researcher Muhammad Shazzad Hossain was named the Woodside Early Career Scientist of the Year award at the Western Australia’s Science Awards for his research on foundations and anchoring systems for shallow and deep water offshore oil and gas developments.


UWA 2013 Early Career Researcher Best Publication Award

COFS’s Lecturer, Xiaowei Feng, was awarded UWA 2013 Early Career Researcher Best Publication Award for his paper ‘Design approach for rectangular mudmats under fully three-dimensional loading’ co-authored with Mark Randolph and Susan Gourvenec. The paper focusses on ‘mudmats’ that support subsea structures for deepwater piplines. The design method proposed has been adopted by industry, providing potential reduction of the size of the shallow foundations, like PLET mudmats, by up to 20%.

Society of Underwater Technology Scholarship

COFS’ PhD student, Anthony Blake was awarded an educational support scholarship from the Perth branch of the Society of Underwater Technology (SUT) for his work on a novel anchor type, dynamically embedded plate anchor.

Australian Geomechanics Society GFWA Prize

UWA graduate, and now a COFS PhD student, Guan Tor Lim was awarded the 21st GFWA Prize for final year undergraduate projects in geomechanics at universities in Western Australia was held by the Australian Geomechanics Society on 8 October at Engineers Australia, Perth for the project ‘Influence of sample disturbance on intermediate soil characterisation’.

Western Australian Marine Science Postgraduate Award

COFS’ PhD student, Lucile Quéau was awarded the Western Australian Marine Science Postgraduate Award for her work on the fatigue of steel catenary risers for deepwater platforms. The Award was sponsored by the UNESCO IOC and the Western Australian Branch of the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology.


PhD Thesis by Where they are now

Numerical modelling of pipe-soil interactions Chatterjee, Santiram Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee

On-bottom stability of submarine pipeline on mobile seabed

Luo, Chengcai The University of Western Australia

The as-laid embedment of subsea pipelines Westgate, Zachary Advanced Geomechanics, Houston

The changing strength of clay and its application to offshore pipeline design

Sahdi, Fauzan University Malaysia Sarawak

Numerical and experimental investigation of offshore shallow skirted foundations

Mana, Divya India

A force resultant model for spudcan foundations in soft clay

Zhang, Youhu Norwegian Geotechnical Institute

Graduations

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Clients:Advanced GeomechanicsARUPAtkins AustralasiaAtkins BoreasAtteris Pty LtdBP ExplorationCanadian SeabedCarnegie Wave EnergyChevronCoffey Mining Pty LtdDaewoo Shipbuilding and

Marine EngineeringDelmar SystemsFugro EngineersIlluka Resources

Research fundingWe wish to thank the following for their support in 2013:

KAISTKeppel OffshoreKnight Piesold PtyShanghai Tongji UniversityShellSTBB – Smith Tabata

BuchananSubsea 7 AustraliaTekscan IncTotal E & P ResercheTU Hamburg-HarburgTuTech InnovationUTEC Geomarine LtdWA Energy Research AllianceWorleyParsons

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The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework

Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement

no. 287056

Australian Research Council

Research Grant funding partners:


PublicationsThe University of Western Australia | 67

with a ‘Green Town’ concept, Energy Procedia, 37: 7337-7345.

Chow, S. H. and D. W. Airey (2013) Soil strength characterisation using free-falling penetrometers., Geotechnique, 63 (13): 1131-1143.

Dijkstra, J., C. Gaudin and D. J. White (2013) Comparison of failure modes below footings on carbonate and silica sands, International Journal of Physical Modelling in Geotechnics, 13 (1): 1-12.

Dimmock, P., E. Clukey, M. F. Randolph, D. Murff and C. Gaudin (2013) Hybrid subsea foundations for subsea equipment, Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 139 (12): 2182-2192.

Draper, S., A. G. L. Borthwick and G. T. Houlsby (2013) Energy potential of a tidal fence deployed near a coastal headland, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 371 (1985).

Draper, S., T. A. A. Adcock, A. G. L. Borthwick and G. T. Houlsby (2013) An electrical analogy for the Pentland Firth tidal stream power resource, Proceedings of The Royal Society A, 470 (2161).

Guha, I., B. B. Whitney, R. Flores-Berrones, A. Barsainya and G. Arya (2013) Earthquakes and the Indian pipeline industry, Journal of Pipeline Engineering, 12 (4): 335-344.

Hengesh, J. V., J. K. Dirstein and A. J. Stanley (2013) Landslide geomorphology along the exmouth plateau continental margin, North West Shelf, Australia, Australian Geomechanics Journal, 48 (4): 71-91.

Henke, S. and B. Bienen (2013) Centrifuge tests investigating the influence of pile cross-section on pile driving resistance of open-ended piles, International Journal of Physical Modelling in Geotechnics, 13 (2): 50-62.

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Technical/industry reports

Book chaptersHu, P., D. Wang, M. J. Cassidy and Q. Yang (2013). Large deformation analysis of spudcan penetration into sand overlying normally consolidated clay. Constitutive Modeling of Geomaterials: Advances and New Applications. Q. Yang, J.-M. Zhang, H. Zheng and Y. Yao. Berlin Heidelberg, Springer-Verlag: 723-733.

Uzielli, M., P. W. Mayne and M. J. Cassidy (2013). Probabilistic assignment of design strength for sands from in-situ testing data. Modern Geotechnical Design Codes of Practice: Implementation, Application and Development. P. Arnold, G. A. Fenton, M. A. Hicks, T. Schweckendiek and B. Simpson. The Netherlands, IOS Press. 1: 214-227.

Zheng, J., M. S. Hossain and D. Wang (2013). 3D large deformation FE analysis of spudcan foundations on layered clays using CEL approach. Constitutive Modeling of Geomaterials: Advances and New Applications. Q. Yang, J.-M. Zhang, H. Zheng and Y. Yao. Berlin Heidelberg, Springer-Verlag: 803-810.

JournalsAdcock, T. A. A., S. Draper, G. T. Houlsby, A. G. L. Borthwick and

S. Serhadlioglu (2013) The available power from tidal stream turbines in the Pentland Firth, Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 469 (2157).

An, H., C. Luo, L. Cheng and D. J. White (2013) A new facility for studying ocean-structure-seabed interactions: The O-Tube, Coastal Engineering, 82: 88-101.

Bienen, B. and M. J. Cassidy (2013) Set-up and resulting punch-through risk of jack-up spudcans during installation, Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 139 (12): 2048-2059.

Cassidy, M. J., M. Uzielli and Y. Tian (2013) Probabilistic combined loading failure envelopes of a strip footing on spatially variable soil, Computers and Geotechnics, 49: 191-205.

Chatterjee, S., D. J. White and M. F. Randolph (2013) Coupled consolidation analysis of pipe-soil interactions, Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 50 (6): 609-619.

Cheng, N., M. Furth, M. C. Johnson, Y. T. Zhi, R. Ajit Shenoi and P. A. Wilson (2013) Engaging the community


Serhadlioğlu, S., T. A. A. Adcock, G. T. Houlsby, S. Draper and A. G. L. Borthwick (2013) Tidal stream energy resource assessment of the Anglesey Skerries, International Journal of Marine Energy, 3-4: e98-e111.

Stanier, S. A. and A. Tarantino (2013) An approach for predicting the stability of vertical cuts in cohesionless soils above the water table, Engineering Geology, 158: 98-108.

Stanier, S. A. and D. J. White (2013) Improved image-based deformation measurement in the centrifuge environment, Geotechnical Testing Journal, 36 (6): 1-15.

Tarasov, B. G. and Y. Potvin (2013) Universal criteria for rock brittleness estimation under triaxial

Tastan, E. O. and J. A. H. Carraro (2013) A new slurry-based method of preparation of hollow cylinder specimens of clean and silty sands, Geotechnical Testing Journal, 36 (6): 811-822.

Tian, Y. and M. J. Cassidy (2013) Equivalent absolute lateral static stability of on-bottom offshore pipelines, Australian Geomechanics Journal, 48 (4): 59-70.

Tian, Y., C. Gaudin, M. J. Cassidy and M. F. Randolph (2013) Considerations on the design of keying flap of plate anchors, Journal of Geotechnical

Hodder, M. S., D. J. White and M. J. Cassidy (2013) An effective stress framework for the variation in penetration resistance due to episodes of remoulding and reconsolidation, Géotechnique, 63 (1): 30-43.

Hossain, M. S. and A. Fourie (2013) Stability of a strip foundation on a sand embankment over mine tailings, Géotechnique, 63 (8): 641-650.

Kim, J., S. Jeong and Y. Kim (2013) Improved design method for bent pile structures (cast-in-drilled-hole shafts) based on nonlinear characteristics, Materials and Structures, Published Online: 1-20.

Kohan, O., C. Gaudin, B. Bienen and M. J. Cassidy (2014) Spudcan extraction from deep embedment in soft clay, Applied Ocean Research, submitted.

Kong, V., M. J. Cassidy and C. Gaudin (2013) Experimental study of effect of geometry on reinstallation of jack-up next to footprint, Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 50 (5): 557-573.

Lee, K. K., M. J. Cassidy and M. F. Randolph (2013) Bearing capacity on sand overlying clay soils: a simplified conceptual model, Géotechnique, 63 (15): 1285-1297.

Lee, K. K., M. J. Cassidy and M. F. Randolph (2013) Bearing capacity on sand overlying clay soils: experimental and finite-element investigation of potential punch-through failure, Géotechnique, 63 (15): 1271-1284.

Mana, D. S. K., S. M. Gourvenec and C. M. Martin (2013) Critical skirt spacing for shallow foundations under general loading, Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 139 (9): 1554-1566.

Mana, D. S. K., S. M. Gourvenec and M. F. Randolph (2013) A novel technique to mitigate the effect of gapping on the uplift capacity

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Citations of papers published since 1997. Source is Web of Science.

UWA citations in leading geotechnical journals

of offshore shallow foundations., Géotechnique, 63 (14): 1245-1252.

Mana, D. S. K., S. M. Gourvenec and M. F. Randolph (2013) Experimental investigation of reverse end bearing of offshore shallow foundations, Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 50 (10): 1022-1033.

O’Loughlin, C. D., M. D. Richardson, M. F. Randolph and C. Gaudin (2013) Penetration of dynamically installed anchors in clay, Géotechnique, 63 (11): 909-919.

Pucker, T., B. Bienen and S. Henke (2013) CPT based prediction of foundation penetration in siliceous sand, Applied Ocean Research, 41: 9-18.

Quéau, L. M., M. Kimiaei and M. F. Randolph (2013) Dimensionless groups governing response of steel catenary risers, Ocean Engineering, 74: 247-259.

Li, S., Tian, Y., Zhou, Y., Jiang, B. and Wang, J. (2013) ‘Premature Refusal of Large-diameter, Deep-penetration Piles on an Offshore Platform.’ Applied Ocean Research. 42, 55-59

Seo, J., Y. Kim, J. Cho and S. Jeong (2013) Estimation of in situ dynamic modulus by using MEPDG dynamic modulus and FWD data at different temperatures, International Journal of Pavement Engineering, 14 (4): 343-353.


(2013). Invited Keynote Lecture: Recent advances in the centrifuge modelling of offshore foundations. 7th Chinese Symposium on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics. Hangzhou, China.

Dight, P. M., B. G. Tarasov and A. W. O’Hare (2013) Determining the proneness of rock to strainbursts. Eighth International Symposium on Rockbursts and Seismicity in Mines, Saint Petersburg-Moscow, Russia, 75-82.

Dight, P. M., B. G. Tarasov, A. Hsieh and A. V. Dyskin (2013) Determining stress memory under confinement. Sixth International Symposium on In-Situ Rock Stress, Sendai, Japan, 735-743.

Dirstein, J. K., J. V. Hengesh and A. J. Stanley (2013). Identification of fluid flow features in the seafloor and subsurface and their implications for prospect and geohazard assessment: Examples from the Australian Northwest Shelf. Western Australian Basin Symposium. Perth, Western Australia.

Draper, S. (2013) On the optimum place to locate a tidal fence in the Severn Estuary. 2nd Oxford Tidal Energy Workshop, Oxford, U.K., 23-24.

Draper, S., T. Stallard, P. Stansby, S. Way and T. A. A. Adcock (2013). Laboratory scale experiments and preliminary modelling to investigate basin scale tidal stream energy extraction. 10th European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference. Aalborg, Denmark.

Edwards, D., B. Bienen, T. Pucker and S. Henke (2013) Evaluation of the performance of a CPT-based correlation to predict spudcan penetrations using field data. 14th International Conference: The Jack-Up Platform – Design, Construction and Operation, London, UK.

Epstein, R., S. Draper and L. Cheng (2013) Backfill of narrow subsea

and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 139 (7): 1156-1164.

Vulpe, C., B. Bienen and C. Gaudin (2013) Predicting the undrained capacity of skirted spudcans under combined loading, Ocean Engineering, 74: 178-188.

Wang, D., C. Gaudin and M. F. Randolph (2013) Large deformation finite element analysis investigating the performance of anchor keying flap, Ocean Engineering, 59: 107-116.

Wang, D., M. F. Randolph and D. J. White (2013) A dynamic large deformation finite element method based on mesh regeneration, Computers and Geotechnics, 54: 192-201.

Wang, D., R. S. Merifield and C. Gaudin (2013) Uplift behaviour of helical anchors in clay, Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 50 (6): 575-584.

Westgate, Z., D. J. White and M. F. Randolph (2013) Modelling the embedment process during offshore pipe-laying on fine-grained soils, Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 50 (1): 15-27.

White, D. J., N. P. Boylan and N. H. Levy (2013) Geotechnics offshore Australia: beyond traditional soil mechanics, Australian Geomechanics Journal, 48 (4): 25-47.

Whitney, B. B. and J. V. Hengesh (2013) Geological Constraints on Mmax values from Western Australia: Implications for Seismic Hazard Assessments, Australian Geomechanics Journal, 48 (2): 15-25.

Youssef, B. S., M. J. Cassidy and Y. Tian (2013) Application of statistical analysis techniques to pipeline on-bottom stability analysis, Journal of Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering, 135 (3): 031701.

Youssef, B. S., Y. Tian and M. J. Cassidy (2013) Centrifuge modelling

of an on-bottom pipeline under equivalent wave and current loading, Applied Ocean Research, 40 (25): 14-25.

Zhang, X., K. Krabbenhoft, D. M. Pedroso, A. V. Lyamin, D. Sheng, M. Vicente da Silva and D. Wang (2013) Particle finite element analysis of large deformation and granular flow problems, Computers and Geotechnics, 54: 133-142.

Zhang, Y., B. Bienen and M. J. Cassidy (2013) Development of a combined VHM loading apparatus for a geotechnical drum centrifuge, International Journal of Physical Modelling in Geotechnics, 13 (1): 13-30.

Zhou, M., M. S. Hossain, Y. Hu and Y. Liu (2013) Behaviour of ball penetrometer in uniform single- and double-layer clays, Géotechnique, 63 (8): 682-694.

Zou, L., B. G. Tarasov, A. V. Dyskin, D. P. Adhikary, E. Pasternake and W. Xu (2013) Physical modelling of stress-dependent permeability in fractured rocks, Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering, 46 (1): 67-81.

2013 ConferencesBorges Rodriguez, A., M. F. Bransby, I. Finnie, H. E. Low and D. J. White (2013) Changes in pipeline embedment due to sediment mobility: observations and implications for design. The 32nd International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, Nantes, France, OMAE2013-11425:

Bransby, M. F., D. J. White, H. E. Low and A. Borges Rodriguez (2013) The use of centrifuge model testing to provide geotechnical input parameters for pipeline engineering. The 32nd International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, Nantes, France, OMAE2013-11484:

Cassidy, M. J., Y. Tian, C. D. O’Loughlin, C. Gaudin and B. Bienen


Rudolph, C., J. Grabe and B. Bienen (2013). Deformation behavior of piles subjected to cyclic lateral loading from a varying direction. Conference on Maritime Energy. Hamburg, Germany.

Safinus, S., M. S. Hossain and M. F. Randolph (2013) Comparison of stress-strain behaviour of carbonate and silicate sediments. 18th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Paris France, 267-270.

Santo, H., P. Hu, B. Agarwal, M. Placidi and J. Zhou (2013) A proposed concept design solution towards full-scale manganese nodule recovery. The 32nd International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, Nantes, France, OMAE2013-10323:

Serhadlioglu, S., G. T. Houlsby, T. A. A. Adcock, S. Draper and A. G. L. Borthwick (2013). Assessment of tidal stream energy resources in the UK using a discontinuous Galerkin finite element scheme. 17th International Conference on Finite Elements in Flow Problems. San Diego, USA.

Serhadlioglu, S., G. T. Houlsby, T. A. A. Adcock, S. Draper and A. G. L. Borthwick (2013). Tidal stream energy resource assessment of the Anglesey Skerries. 10th European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference. Aalborg, Denmark.

trenches: A comparison of experiments and depth-averaged models. The 23rd International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference, Anchorage, USA, 3: 1259-1266.

Feng, X. and S. M. Gourvenec (2013) Optimal shear key interval for offshore shallow foundations. The 32nd International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, Nantes, France, OMAE2013-10118: 308-317.

Gaudin, C., O. L. C.D., M. S. Hossain and E. H. Zimmerman (2013) The performance of dynamically embedded anchors in calcareous silt. The 32nd International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, Nantes, France, OMAE2013-10115:

Hossain, M. S., Y. H. Kim and D. Wang (2013) Physical and numerical modelling of installation and pull-out of dynamically penetrating anchors in clay and silt. The 32nd International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, Nantes, France, OMAE2013-10322:

Kohan, O., B. Bienen, M. J. Cassidy and C. Gaudin (2013) Centrifuge experiments to study extraction of a deeply embedded spudcan using top jetting. The 32nd International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, Nantes, France, OMAE2013-10468:

Kouretzis, G. P., D. Sheng and D. Wang (2013). Numerical simulation of CPT cone penetration in sand. 1st Australasian Conference on Computational Mechanics. Sydney, Australia.

Li, X., Y. Hu and D. J. White (2013). Extension of Mohr-Coulomb model into state dependent softening of sand and its application in large deformation analysis. 2nd International Symposium on Constitutive Modeling of Geomaterials: Advances and New Applications. Beijing, China: 583-591.

14 ____________________________________________________

12 ____________________________________________________

10 ____________________________________________________

8 ____________________________________________________

6 ____________________________________________________

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2 ____________________________________________________

0 ____________________________________________________

UWA average World average

Citations per paper in leading geotechnical journals

Based on all papers published since 1997. Source is Web of Science.

12.17

9.62

Mohr, H., S. Draper and D. J. White (2013) Free field sediment mobility on Australia’s North West Shelf. The 32nd International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, Nantes, France, OMAE2013-11490:

O’Loughlin, C. D., A. P. Blake, D. Wang, C. Gaudin and M. F. Randolph (2013) The dynamically embedded plate anchor: results from an experimental and numerical study. The 32nd International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, Nantes, France, OMAE2013-11571:

Queau, L. M., M. Kimiaei and M. F. Randolph (2013) Lazy wave catenary risers: scaling factors and analytical approximation of the static stress range in the touchdown zone. The 32nd International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, Nantes, France,

Randolph, M. F. (2013) Analytical contributions to offshore geotechnical engineering. 18th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Paris France, 85-105.

Randolph, M. F., S. Bhat, S. Jain and B. Mekha (2013). Modeling the touchdown zone trench and its impact on SCR fatigue life. Offshore Technology Conference. Houston, Texas.


of the short-term compression and uplift capacity of offshore shallow foundations, Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 140 (3): 04013021.

Chatterjee, S., M. F. Randolph and D. J. White (2014) A parkable piezoprobe for measuring cv at shallow depths for offshore design., Geotechnique, 64 (1): 83-88.

Cheng, L., H. An, S. Draper, H. Luo, T. Brown and D. J. White (2014) Invited Keynote: UWA’s O-Tube facilities: physical modelling of fluid-structure-seabed interactions. The 8th International Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics, Perth Australia, 1: 3-20.

Cheng, N., C. Gaudin, M. J. Cassidy and B. Bienen (2014) Centrifuge study of the combined bearing capacity of a hybrid foundation system. The 8th International Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics, Perth Australia, 1: 487-492.

Choo, Y. W., S. Kim, J. H. Kim, H. Y. Lee, D. S. Kim, D. J. Kim, J. U. Youn, S. H. Jee, J. Choi and M. S. Hossain (2014) Centrifuge test of a clustered bucket foundation for offshore wind towers. The 8th International Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics, Perth Australia, 1: 529-535.

Chow, S. H. and D. W. Airey (2014) Free falling penetrometers: A laboratory investigation in clay, Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 140 (1): 201-214.

Ciancio, D., C. T. S. Beckett and J. A. H. Carraro (2014) Optimum lime content identification for lime-stabilised rammed earth, Construction and Building Materials, 53: 59-65.

Draper, S. and T. Nishino (2014) Centred and staggered arrangements of tidal turbines, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 739: 72-93.

Tarasov, B. G. (2013) Depth distribution of lithospheric strength determined by the self-unbalancing shear rupture mechanism. Eurock 2013: Rock Mechanics for Resources, Energy and Environment, 165-170.

Tarasov, B. G. (2013) Stress shock generated at spontaneous rock failure at highly confined compression. 1st International Conference on Rock Dynamics and Applications, Lausanne; Switzerland, 219-224.

Tarasov, B. G. and M. A. Guzev (2013) New insight into the nature of size dependence and the lower limit of rock strength. International Symposium on Rockbursts and Seismisity in Mines, St Petersburg, Moscow, Russia, 31-40.

Tian, Y., M. J. Cassidy and M. Uzielli (2013) Probabilistic assessment of the bearing capacity of shallow strip footings on stiff-over-soft clay. 18th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Paris France, 3475-3478.

Ullah, S. N., Y. Hu, D. J. White and S. A. Stanier (2013). Lateral boundary effect in centrifuge tests for spudcan penetration in uniform clay. 1st Australasian Conference on Computational Mechanics. Sydney, Australia.

Vulpe, C. and C. Gaudin (2013) Uniaxial bearing capacity factors and failure mechanisms for skirted spudcans. The 32nd International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, Nantes, France, OMAE2013-10254:

Wang, D., C. Han and C. Gaudin (2013) Effect of roughness on keying of plate anchors. International Conference on Installation Effects in Geotechnical Engineering, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 264-269.

White, D. J. (2013) Seabed pipelines: The influence of installation effects. International Conference on

Installation Effects in Geotechnical Engineering, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 146-161.

White, D. J., C. Gaudin and W. A. Take (2013) General report for TC104 Session – Physical modelling in Geotechnics. 18th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Paris, France.

Zhang, Q., L. Cheng, S. Draper, H. An and H. Shi (2013) Revisiting the mechanics of onset of scour below subsea pipelines in steady currents. The 32nd International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, Nantes, France, OMAE2013-11334:

Zhang, Y., B. Bienen and M. J. Cassidy (2013) On the VHM capacity of a buried spudcan in soft clay as it relates to the new ISO 19905-1 guidelines. 14th International Conference: The Jack-Up Platform – Design, Construction & Operation, London, UK.

Zheng, J., M. S. Hossain and D. Wang (2013) 3D large deformation Fe analysis of spudcan and cone penetration on three-layer clays. The 23rd International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference, Anchorage, USA, 2: 453-460.

Upcoming publicationsAdcock, T. A. A. and S. Draper (2014) Power extraction from tidal channels - Multiple tidal constituents, compound tides and overtides, Renewable Energy, 63: 797-806.

Burns, M., M. Landon Maynard, W. G. Davids, J. Chung and C. Gaudin (2014) Centrifuge modelling of suction caissons under orthogonal double line loading. The 8th International Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics, Perth Australia, 1: 465-471.

Chatterjee, S., D. S. K. Mana, S. M. Gourvenec and M. F. Randolph (2014) Large deformation numerical modeling


Hossain, M. S., C. D. O’Loughlin and C. Gaudin (2014) A new technique to reconstitute crust layers for model testing. The 8th International Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics, Perth, Australia, 1: 325-330.

Hu, P., D. Wang, M. J. Cassidy and S. A. Stanier (2014) Predicting the resistance profile of a spudcan on sand overlying clay, Canadian Geotechnical Journal, in revision.

Hu, P., S. A. Stanier, M. J. Cassidy and D. Wang (2014) Predicting peak resistance of spudcan penetrating sand overlying clay, Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 140 (2): 0001016.

Kouretzis, G. P., D. Sheng and D. Wang (2014) Numerical simulation of cone penetration testing using a new critical state constitutive model for sand., Computers and Geotechnics, 56: 50-60.

Li, X., C. Gaudin, Y. Tian and M. J. Cassidy (2014) Rate effects on the uplift capacity of skirted foundations on clay. The 8th International Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics, Perth, Australia, 1: 473-479.

Li, X., C. Gaudin, Y. Tian and M. J. Cassidy (2014) The effect of perforations on the uplift capacity of skirted foundations on clay, Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 51(3): 322-331, doi: 10.1139/cgj-2013-0110.

Li, J., Tian, Y. and Cassidy, M.J. (2014) ‘Failure Mechanism and Bearing Capacity of Footings Buried at Various Depths in Spatially Random Soils’. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, submitted.

Ma, J., D. Wang, and M. F. Randolph (2014). A new contact algorithm in the material point method for geotechnical simulations. International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics, in press.

Draper, S., T. A. A. Adcock, A. G. L. Borthwick and G. T. Houlsby (2014) An electrical analogy for the Pentland Firth tidal stream power resource, Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 470 (2161): 20130207.

Draper, S., T. A. A. Adcock, A. G. L. Borthwick and G. T. Houlsby (2014) Estimate of the tidal stream power resource of the Pentland Firth, Renewable Energy, 63: 650-657.

Fu, D., B. Bienen, C. Gaudin and M. J. Cassidy (2014) Undrained capacity of a hybrid subsea skirted mat with caissons under combined loading, Canadian Geotechnical Journal: submitted.

Gaudin, C. and D. J. White, Eds. (2014). Physical Modelling in Geotechnics. Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics. Leiden, The Netherlands, CRC Press/Balkema.

Gaudin, C., C. D. O’Loughlin, M. S. Hossain, M. F. Randolph and J.-L. Colliat (2014) Installation of suction caissons in Gulf of Guinea clay. The 8th International Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics, Perth Australia, 1: 493-499.

Gourvenec, S. M., C. Vulpe and T. Murthy (2014) A method for predicting the consolidated undrained bearing capacity of shallow foundation, Geotechnique, 64 (3): 215-225.

Henke, S. and B. Bienen (2014) Investigation of the influence of the installation method on the soil plugging behaviour of a tubular pile. The 8th International Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics, Perth, Australia, 2: 681-687.

Hossain, M. S. and D. Xue (2014) Extraction of spudcan foundations in single and multi-layer soils, Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 140: 170-184.

UWA Early Career Research Best Paper AwardFeng, X., M. F. Randolph, S. M. Gourvenec and R. Wallerand (2014) Design approach for rectangular mudmats under fully three-dimensional loading, Geotechnique, 64 (1): 51-63.

Abstract:Mudmats are used in the offshore oil and gas industry to support subsea infrastructure for pipeline terminations and well manifolds.

Expansion and contraction of connected pipelines and jumpers due to changing thermal and pressure conditions impose fully three-dimensional loading on the foundations, dominated by horizontal, moment and torsional loading rather than high vertical loads.

The mudmat foundations are rectangular, and include shallow skirts in order to increase capacity, particularly for sliding. Offshore design guidelines for shallow foundations tend to excessive conservatism; optimisation of mudmat capacity under general loading has thus become critical in order to keep foundation footprints within the limits of current installation vessels.

The paper presents an alternative design method, based on failure envelopes derived from an extensive programme of three-dimensional finite-element analyses, focusing on the sliding and rotational capacity of the foundation. Starting from expressions that quantify the uniaxial capacity under each of the six degrees of freedom, failure envelope shapes for different biaxial combinations are developed.

Ultimately, the allowable capacity under the six-degree-of-freedom loading is expressed in terms of a two-dimensional failure envelope for the resultant horizontal load.


Ullah, S. N., S. A. Stanier, D. J. White and Y. Hu (2014) Using the ‘step zero’ approach to design a centrifuge modelling program. The 8th International Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics, Perth Australia, 1: 397-403.

Vulpe, C., Gourvenec, S.M. (2014). Effect of preloading on the response of a shallow skirted foundation. International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, San Francisco, USA. OMAE2014-23440.

Vulpe, C., Gourvenec, S.M. and Power, M. A generalized failure envelope for undrained capacity of circular shallow foundations under general loading (submitted to journal).

Vulpe, C., Gourvenec, S.M., Leman, B. and Fung, KN. ‘Consolidated undrained VHM capacity of strip and circular surface foundations’ (submitted to journal).

Wei, Q., M. J. Cassidy, Y. Tian and C. Gaudin (2014) Incorporating shank resistance into prediction of the keying behaviour of SEPLAs, Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, submitted.

Zhang, Y., D. Wang and M. J. Cassidy (2014) Effect of installation on the bearing capacity of a spudcan under combined loading in soft clay, Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, in press.

Zhang, Y., M. J. Cassidy and B. Bienen (2014) A plasticity model for spudcans in soft clay, Canadian Geotechnical Journal, submitted.

Zhang, Y., M. J. Cassidy and B. Bienen (2014) Jack-up push-over analyses featuring a new force resultant model for spudcans in soft clay, Ocean Engineering, submitted.

Mana, D. S. K., S. M. Gourvenec and M. F. Randolph (2014) Numerical modelling of seepage beneath skirted foundations subjected to vertical uplift, Computers and Geotechnics, 55: 150-157.

Nian, T. K., K. Liu, Y. J. Zhang and D. Wang (2014) Limit analysis of slopes reinfored with multi-directional anchors, Applied Mechanics and Materials, 501-504: 27-31.

Quéau, L.M., Kimiaei, M., Randolph, M.F. (?). Analytical estimation of static stress range in oscillating steel catenary risers at touch down areas and its application with dynamic amplification factors. Submitted to Ocean Engineering, Elsevier, February 2014.

Quéau, L.M., Kimiaei, M., Randolph, M.F. (?). Artificial neural network development for stress analysis of steel catenary risers. Part I: Pilot study. Submitted to Applied Ocean Research, Elsevier, March 2014.

Quéau, L.M., Kimiaei, M., Randolph, M.F. (?). Artificial neural network development for stress analysis of steel catenary risers. Part II: Sensitivity study and approximation of static stress range. Submitted to Applied Ocean Research, Elsevier, March 2014.

Rudolph, C., J. Grabe and B. Bienen (2014) Response of monopiles under cyclic lateral loading with a varying loading direction. The 8th International Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics, Perth, Australia, 1: 453-458.

Sahdi, F., C. Gaudin, D. J. White, N. Boylan and M. F. Randolph (2014) Centrifuge modelling of active slide-pipeline loading in soft clay, Geotechnique, 64 (1): 16-27.

Shiri, H. (2014) Influence of seabed trench formation on fatigue performance of steel catenary risers in touchdown zone, Marine Structures, 36: 1-20.

Shiri, H. (2014) Response of steel catenary risers on hysteretic non-linear seabed, Applied Ocean Research, 44: 20-28.

Stanier, S. A., J. A. Black and C. C. Hird (2014) Modelling helical screw piles in soft clay and design implications., Proceedings of the ICE – Geotechnical Engineering (early view).

Stanier, S. A., J. Breen and D. J. White (2014) A compact high-speed image capture system for a drum centrifuge. The 8th International Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics, Perth, Australia, 1: 241-246.

Tarasov, B. G. (2014) Hitherto unknown shear rupture mechanism as a source of instability in intact hard rocks at highly confined compression, Tectonophysics, in press.

Tarasov, B. G. and M. A. Guzev (2014) Mathematical model of fan-head shear rupture mechanism, Key Engineering Materials, 592-593: 121-124.

Tian, Y., C. Gaudin and M. J. Cassidy (2014) Improving plate anchor design with a keying flap, Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, doi:10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0001093.

Tian, Y., M. J. Cassidy and C. Gaudin (2014) The influence of padeye offset on plate anchor re-embedding behaviour, Geotechnique Letters, 4: 39-44.

Tian, Y., M. J. Cassidy, M. F. Randolph, D. Wang and C. Gaudin (2014) A simple implementation of RITSS and its application in large deformation analysis, Computers and Geotechnics, 56: 160-167.

Tian, Y., Gaudin, C. Randolph, M.F. and Cassidy, M.J. (2014) ‘The Influence of Padeye Offset on the Bearing Capacity of Three Dimensional Plate Anchors’. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, submitted.


Financial report


Financial reportThe University of Western AustraliaCentre for Offshore Foundation Systems

Statement of funds and expenditurefor the year ending 31 December 2013

FUNDING

Commonwealth Government FundsResearch Quantum $1,119,163 ARC Grants $1,789,492Commonwealth Government $13,847 $2,922,502

State Government $159,858

Host Institution Support $1,517,450

Industry/Private Funds $4,416,295

Other Funds $583,697

TOTAL FUNDS AVAILABLE $9,599,802

EXPENDITURE

SalariesAcademic Staff $4,065,188.51Non-Academic Staff $1,881,544.45 Scholarships and Scholarship Supplements $ 826,884.62 $6,773,618

Equipment $1,437,527

Travel and Conference Expenses $599,614

Consumables $95,075

Other Expenses $1,040,314

TOTAL EXPENDITURE $9,946,148

OPERATING RESULT -$346,346


COFS funding 2013

COMMONWEALTH GOVERNMENT FUNDS

Department of Education and TrainingOperating Grant – Research Quantum $1,119,163Australian Postgraduate Awards* $123,676 $1,242,838

ARC ProgramsARC Centre of Excellence for Geotechnical Science and Engineering CE110001009

$977,658

Bienen and Cassidy – Predicting the Foundation Performance of Offshore Jack-up Drilling Rigs in Intermediate Soils DP110101603

$87,687

Cassidy – Engineering Solutions for the Next Generation of Offshore Oil and Gas Infrastructure FT0990301

$127,163

Randolph, Puzrin, Wang – Dynamic Evolution of Submarine Slides and Consequences for Offshore Developments DP1200102987

$244,446

Hossain, Randolph and Cassidy – Estimation of Spudcan Penetration Resistance in Stratified Soils Directly from Field Penetrometer Data and Quantification of Punch Through Risk LP110100174

$140,846

White – Seabed Engineering to Unlock Australia’s Deepwater Oil and Gas Resources FT0991816

$112,550

Cheng, Zhao, An, Draper, Zhou, White – Local Scour below Offshore Pipelines on Calcareous Sediments DP130104535

$99,142 $1,789,492

Commonwealth Government Draper – Carnegie Researcher in Business – Carnegie Wave Energy – CETO 5 Virtualisation

20,670.50 $20,671

STATE GOVERNMENT FUNDSAustralia-China Natural Gas Partnership Technology Fund $159,858

HOST INSTITUTION SUPPORTIn Kind Salary Support* $414,101University Postgraduate Awards* $878,406Research Matching Funds $1,459,027Salary Supplementation $42,424Discretionary Income $16,000 $2,809,957

PROJECT AND INDUSTRY SUPPORT $4,416,295

OTHER FUNDS $583,697

TOTAL FUNDING $11,022,808

* Denotes notional funds


COVER PHOTO COURTESY OF JOAN COSTA

Mission statementThe Centre will carry out fundamental research at an internationally recognised standard of excellence in the areas of the mechanics of seabed sediments, offshore geohazards and of offshore foundation and engineering systems. It will use its expertise to service the offshore petroleum and renewable energy industries at both a national and international level.

ÌÌ Physical modelling technology: To develop innovative physical modelling techniques that deliver research needs relevant to the complexity of offshore sediments behaviour and offshore soil structure interaction.

ÌÌ Georisk: Develop stochastic analysis techniques to account for natural variability of sediments properties and environmental loadings in the quantifying of risk to offshore foundations and infrastructure.

In addition to the above research aims, there are a number of broader goals that the Centre strives for:

Service goalsto be recognised internationally for provision of advice and specialist modelling services to the offshore petroleum and renewable energy industry and to provide a core of people with internationally recognised expertise in the area of offshore foundation systems, geohazards and engineering through PhD programs and post-doctoral training.

Teaching goalsto provide a stimulating atmosphere that will attract the highest quality research students at Honours and PhD level, to ensure excellent academic and technical support of their studies and to help develop the specialist offshore consultancy profession in Australia.

Financial goalto attract sufficient research funding from industry and other research grants, to remain self-sufficient and to achieve the research, service and teaching goals of the Centre.

GoalsResearch goalsThe principal research aims of the Centre are to identify the key micro-structural response of natural seabed sediments and to establish quantitative links between that response and the performance of foundation systems and offshore infrastructure. The goals in our key research areas are:

ÌÌ Offshore sediments: To identify the key mechanisms at a micro-structural level that dictate critical aspects of behaviour, and quantify that behaviour scientifically sound models that capture key features of seabed sediments behaviour.

ÌÌ Offshore geohazards and seabed mobility: To analyse and quantify risks to offshore infrastructure due to geotechnical hazards and to establish a design framework for optimising the choice of foundation and subsea engineering systems, taking account of risk factors.

ÌÌ Offshore foundations systems: To develop conceptual models for the calculation of foundation performance, accounting for the specificity of environmental, and to encapsulate these models into unified design methods.

ÌÌ Offshore engineering: To develop coupled fluid-structure-soil models for problems such as multi-footed platforms, scour, pipeline response, deep water riser and moored systems, as well as emerging renewable energy systems.

ÌÌ Numerical modelling technology: To develop the innovative computational techniques and tools necessary to model offshore infrastructure, with a focus on developing computational algorithms capturing multi-phase sediment response, consolidation and strain rate effects in large deformation problems.

7th International Conference on Scour and Erosion

2nd - 4th December 2014 • Perth, Western Australia

cse2014

CRICOS Provider Code: 00126G UniPrint 114003

Centre for Offshore Foundation SystemsFaculty of Engineering, Computing and MathematicsThe University of Western AustraliaM053, 35 Stirling HighwayCrawley WA 6009Tel: +61 8 6488 3094Fax: +61 8 6488 1044Email: [email protected]

Established in 1997 under the Australian Research Council’s Special Research Centres Program

Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems

ANNUAL REPORT 2013

Centre for O

ffshore Foundation Systems A

nnual Report 2013

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