Capacity Evaluation of Ressalat Jacket of Persian Gulf Considering Proper Finite Element Modeling of Tubular Members

The capacity curve obtained from the pushover analysis of jacket-type offshore platforms gives their structural performance levels, ultimate capacity and ductility. Accurate estimation of structural capacity curve is of great importance. Accurate modeling of the global and local buckling of compression tubular members in a correct form is an effective part of studying the behavior of offshore jackets under all various types of loading conditions at any given time of their life. Modeling of compressive braces by shell or solid elements when the imperfections are applied leads to deformations due to local buckling based on buckling modes. This paper aims to achieve more accurate compressive behavior of compression members. The ABAQUS finite element software has been used for this purpose. Regarding to the results achieved from investigation of buckling in tubular members proper elements have been introduced to investigate the global and local buckling phenomena. Then pushovers results of Ressalat jacket with conventional modeling versus more accurate modeling proposed in this paper for compressive members have been compared as a case study. According to the results applying improper mesh size for compressive members can under-predict the ductility by 33% and underestimate the lateral loading capacity up to 8%. Finally, ISO equations and Marshall strut theory have been applied to investigate critical buckling load and post-buckling response of tubular braces. The innovation of this paper is investigating the interaction of global and local buckling in the braces of jacket with 1-Dimentional elements using ISO equations and buckling envelope derived from the solid element results, which results in low computational costs.