Hebron Offshore Concrete Gravity-Based-Structure:

Novel Design and Construction Techniques

Widianto, Jameel Khalifa, Kåre O. Hæreid, Kjell Tore Fosså, Anton Gjørven

March 24, 2019

Technical Session: Offshore and Marine Concrete Structures: Past, Present, and Future
ACI Spring 2019 Convention
Quebec City, Canada

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and Exposition and Exposition
 Outline
• Introduction

• Design for 10,000-year return period iceberg impacts

• Interaction: Solid Ballast, Embedded Pipes, Concrete

• State-of-the-art Slipforming

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and Exposition and Exposition
 Hebron Offshore Platform
• The base of the Hebron oil drilling, production and storage Drilling
Derrick
Flare
Boom
platform is a concrete Gravity Based Structure (GBS). Power
Generators

• 7 oil storage cells (total capacity of 1.2 million barrels). Helideck

Each cell is protected against icebergs by an ice wall. Living

Quarters

El. 122 m
Oil Storage Cell Utilities /
Lifeboats Process
Modules
Top Slab
Annulus
Mean sea level
Conductors,
Pipes, Pumps
inside GBS
Shaft
Ice
Wall GBS Caisson

Cantilever
Slab
Radial Wall
GBS Base

Cantilever Outer Wall

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Base Slab Cantilever Radial Wall
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and Exposition and Exposition
 Hebron GBS
Key quantities
• 135,000m3 concrete
• 49,000t of reinforcing bars
• 2,500t Post-Tensioning strands
• 220,000t Solid Ballast

Key dimensions
• 130m base slab diameter
• 33m shaft inner diameter
• 122m total height
• 73m caisson height

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and Exposition and Exposition
 Hebron GBS - Location

Hibernia

St. John’s,
Newfoundland
Hebron

Hebron
The Concrete Convention The Concrete Convention
and Exposition and Exposition
 Outline
• Introduction

• Design for 10,000-year return period iceberg impacts

• Interaction: Solid Ballast, Embedded Pipes, Concrete

• State-of-the-art Slipforming

The Concrete Convention The Concrete Convention

and Exposition and Exposition
 Development of Iceberg Impact Loads

Newfoundland
48
N

Hebron
0.81
(1.59)

The International Ice Patrol's website:

Icebergs drifting south of latitude 48N since 1900's

Mean Annual Areal Density

• Icebergs drifting south of latitude 48N since1900's shows annual

iceberg counts can be more than 2,000.
• Significant variation in number, shape, size, length, mass, speed, draft
(significant degrees of uncertainty) → requires probability analyses
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and Exposition and Exposition
• It was essential to consider icebergs for design of Hebron Platform
 Development of Iceberg Impact Loads
Illustration of the ice failure process during an A portion of the initial kinetic energy is
iceberg-structure interaction: converted into rotational energy on impact:

Speed
(Kinetic
energy)

Force = pressure x area

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and Exposition and Exposition
 Development of Iceberg Impact Loads
Probabilistic analysis including
Type II uncertainty analysis with a logic tree: 10,000-yr Iceberg Impact Load:
C-CORE Iceberg Load Software (ILS)
MODEL INPUT DATA
METOCEAN DATA

(e.g. 1,000,000 realizations)

FIT DISTRIBUTIONS

1. Input structure
DISTRIBUTIONS
UPDATE
SIMULATE
ICE DATA DISTRIBUTIONS
(L, HS, Vcollision) configuration and site
FOR IMPACTING
ICEBERGS specific information
STRUCTURAL
CONFIGURATION

ICE LOAD MODEL

ICE PRESSURE
pressure vs. contact area
2. Load calculation
ICE LOAD
CALCULATIONS
- kinetic energy
- eccentricity
-failure mechanics

PROBABILISTIC DESIGN LOADS 3. Estimate the likelihood

DESIGN LOADS
iceberg-structure
ENCOUNTER RATE
(10 , 10 encounters (geometry
-2 -4

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CALCULATION
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ANNUAL PROBABILITY)
based) and calculate
Consider both Icebergs & Ice and Exposition
islands
exceedance probabilities and Exposition
 Analysis & Design of Ice Walls
Simplified Shape of Ice Loads for Design:
Governing design case: iceberg impact at “L/4”
with h/L ratios 2 – 3, which triggered unsymmetrical
buckling mode with maximum deformations at “L/4”.

h/L: 0.33 1 1.5 2 2.5 2.75 3

Locations of center of ice loading along hoop direction:

“L/2” “3L/8” “L/4”

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“Edge at joint” “Center at joint”
and Exposition and Exposition
Horizontal cut at El. 42 m
 Linear Elastic vs. Non-Linear Analyses
• Ice walls subjected to 10,000-year return period iceberg impact

A
Horizontal cut at El. 42 m

Section A-A
• Main benefits (optimization) of NLFEA compared to linear elastic analyses:
• Reduction of hoop reinforcement from 2 layers to 1 layer (~3500 MT rebar reduction)
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• Elimination Convention
of horizontal P/T (~700 MT P/T reduction)
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and Exposition and Exposition
 Installation of Horizontal Rebars

It would be difficult to thread the inner

horizontal rebars if we would require 2
layers rebars → reduce the slipforming
speed → increase risk of damage

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and Exposition and Exposition
 Outline
• Introduction

• Design for 10,000-year return period iceberg impacts

• Interaction: Solid Ballast, Embedded Pipes, Concrete

• State-of-the-art Slipforming

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and Exposition and Exposition
 Interaction: Solid Ballast, Embedded Pipes, Concrete
• Purpose of Solid Ballast (SB), ~220,000t:
• to improve floating stability (lower the vertical center of gravity)
• to increase the on-bottom weight (to achieve sufficient geotechnical stability)
after platform installation

• Installation locations of SB:

at the bottom of all 7 annulus cells and all 7 oil storage cells (up to 11.4m (37ft) high)

• Key requirements for SB:

• Target unit weight of 3,500 kg/m3 (220 lb/ft3)
• No segregation and degradation during placement
• Stability of SB after placement, to avoid any SB movement during various floating phases
• A minimum angle of repose of the submerged consolidated SB of 25 degrees

• SB mix was constituted of iron ore, fly ash, water, cement, silica-fume, retarder, super-plastisizer, and
stabilizer.
Mock-up tests showed that SB mix behaved quite similar to “concrete”, with curing processes and
hardening in the early phases of ballast placement, and a larger material stiffness in the long term.
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and Exposition
→ Interaction between andcomplex
SB, embedded pipes, and concrete structural components are Exposition
 Interaction: Solid Ballast and Concrete
Key design considerations:
• SB pressure on the concrete wall during filling,
• Design of SB filling sequence and the required
amount of ballast water in adjacent cells during SB
filling to minimize the impact of differential pressure
on concrete walls,
• Effect of SB stiffness on the walls (i.e., fixation /
clamping effect), especially under maximum water
pressure (during Topsides-GBS mating) resulting in
the largest wall deformation,
• Effects of the locked-in stresses and deformations
from the solid ballast filling.

GBS-Topsides Deck Mating

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SB filling sequence and Exposition and
TotalExposition
displacement
 Interaction: Solid Ballast, Embedded Pipes, Concrete
• Similar to concrete, SB undergoes a “curing” process from “slurry” to a “stiff” material.

• During SB filling:
• the load on pipes changes from downward loading (when the SB is placed on the top of the pipe) to
a buoyant upward loading when the cell is filled.
• In order to minimize the forces on the pipe (and its reaction force at the concrete walls support
points) and its deformation, SB filling was done incrementally in layers.

When a more rapid SB filling sequence

The Concrete Convention was required,The Concrete
supporting Convention
structures were
and Exposition installed to support pipesand Exposition
 Interaction: Solid Ballast, Embedded Pipes, Concrete
• A full analysis of a pipe response, combining the load
effects from SB placement and operational thermal
loads was performed.

• In order to minimize the loads on pipes and concrete

walls, a “pipe-in-pipe” solution was implemented for
some pipes with significant thermal loading during
operation. Curved pipes were enclosed in larger
secondary pipes, which allowed unrestrained
displacement.

The Concrete Convention The Concrete Convention

and Exposition and Exposition
 Outline
• Introduction

• Design for 10,000-year return period iceberg impacts

• Interaction: Solid Ballast, Embedded Pipes, Concrete

• State-of-the-art Slipforming

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and Exposition and Exposition
 Slipforming at the Deep Water Construction Site (DWS)
All caisson walls between (El 27.5m to El. 71m) were slipformed in the DWS in one continuous pour while the
GBS was floating. This is understood to be the second largest slipforming operation in history, incorporating
~15,000t of rebar and ~ 50,000m3 of concrete over a 34 day period. The formwork utilized for this DWS
slipforming would stretch over 2km.

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and Exposition and Exposition
 State-of-the-Art Slipforming
• Some of the novel parts of the slipform assembly were:

• Yoke height of 1 m (39 in.) (normally 800 mm (31

in.)). This enabled an earlier start with rebar and
embedment installation at the working deck.

• Cooling system on the slipform panel. The closed

system consisted of steel tubes attached to the
slipform panel with cold water circulating through
them to keep the panel surface cold. The low
temperature prevented concrete lumps from
adhering to the panels thereby improving the Yoke height
concrete surface quality even with slow slipform
rates during hot weather conditions.

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and Exposition and Exposition
 State-of-the-Art Slipforming
• Conical slipform system (including star-girder
arrangement) used for slipforming of the GBS shaft
above the top slab (which has a unique and
complex geometry).

• Significant change in geometry of the shaft:

Plan View (Corner of Top of Shaft)
• Start: outer shaft diameter of 36 m (118 ft) with Isometric View of Flaring
Shaft
a wall thickness of 1.5 m (4.9 ft)

• End: square shape with outer dimensions of

53.1m (174 ft) (75 m (246 ft) diagonally) with a
wall thickness 4.52m (14.8 ft) (at the thickest
point in the four corners).

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and Exposition andStar-Girders
Exposition Arrangement
 State-of-the-Art Slipforming
END POSITION: Symmetric
about
El. +119.84 Shaft
centerline

El. +119.84
INSIDE
SHAFT

START POSITION:
OUTSIDE
INSIDE
SHAFT

SHAFT

El. +73.25
El. +73.25 The Concrete Convention The Concrete Convention
and Exposition and Exposition
 State-of-the-Art Slipforming

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and Exposition and Exposition
 Acknowledgements / Questions
Special thanks to:
• Co-venturers Chevron Canada,
Suncor Energy, Equinor Canada
and Nalcor Energy – Oil and Gas
for management support and
provision of secondees to the
Project team.
• Canada – Newfoundland and
Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board
(C-NLOPB) for the regulatory
oversight, guidance and approvals
required to advance the project.
• The Project team and contractors
who worked tirelessly to make this
Project a success.
• ExxonMobil Upstream
organizations and ExxonMobil
Canada Properties for the
The Concrete
collaboration Convention
and support The Concrete Convention
throughout the Project.
and Exposition and Exposition