Goodwyn "A"

Steel Jacket Offshore Platform, Australia

depth of 181 m below mudline.
The marine contractor for this work,
Heerema McDermott Aust. Pty. Ltd.
elected not to use “float shoes” on the
ends of the insert piles which would
have kept grout out of the insert piles.
However, due to this lack of float
shoes concern was raised both re-
garding:

(a) The influence of the proposed grout

placement procedures on the
quality of the grout
(b) The thermal consequences from
heat of hydration of grout in the
interior of the piles

Pre-cast concrete segmental inserts. Ben C. Gerwick, Inc. was retained to

The Goodwyn “A” steeljacket offshore
platform is piled to the seafloor in 130
m deep water on the North West Shelf
of Australia. BCG, Inc. was retained to
evaluate pile installation procedures.
In 1993, Woodside Offshore Petroleum
Pty. Ltd. completed construction of the
Goodwyn “A” steel jacket offshore plat-
form which will be piled to the seafloor
in 130 m deep water on the Northwest
Shelf of Australia. Due to the difficult
soil conditions at the Goodwyn “A”
site, considerable attention has been
paid to the foundations. It was decided
to use 2.65 m O.D. driven primary
piles to a depth of 116 m below the
mudline, and then to install two m O.D.
drilled and grouted insert piles to a
Ben C. Gerwick, Inc. 06-094e-02a
assist Woodside to evaluate the con-
sequences of the marine contractor’s
proposal to allow the grout to flow up
the interior of the insert pile and then
out through staggered port holes
drilled in the sides of the insert piles,
thus filling the annular space between
the insert pile and the primary pile and
the calcarenite soils. In order to help
evaluate the proposed grouting proce-
dures, Heerema McDermott conducted
large scale physical grout flow tests,
and physical heat of hydration tests, as
well as finite element analysis.
After review of the findings of these,
and other studies, it was concluded
that:
(a) A practical grout mix, incorporating
both Portland cement and granu-
Elevation of the Goodwyn “A” offshore platform.
in the annular space.
(b) Thermal stresses resulting from the
heat of hydration of the grout on
the interior of the insert piles would
be unacceptable, even when using
low heat of hydration grouts.
Consequently, a system for replac-
ing much of the grout in the interior
of the piles was developed, using
precast concrete segmental inserts.
These were lowered into the
interior of the insert piles after they
had been installed. This system
proved adequate to limit the heat of
hydration and the consequent
thermal stresses.

lated blast furnace slag could be

developed that could flow through
Year of Completion: 1993 Services Performed:
reasonably spaced and sized side
Design Fee: $65,000 • Large-Diameter Piles
ports in the insert piles without
undue reduction in grout bond • Non-linear Soil-Pile Interaction
Client: Woodside Offshore
Petroleum Pty. Ltd. quality due to such factors as • Concrete Mix Design
having the grout mix with sea water