Optimal Skirt Spacing for Subsea Skirted Foundation Considering Floating Stability

Abstract

A hydraulics model is built in Moses to find the optimal internal skirt spacing for the maximum floating stability of the skirted foundation. The results show that the increase in the internal skirts’ number can help improve the floating stability of the skirted foundation. However, with the increase in the internal skirts’ number, the improvement of floating stability becomes more and more weak. In this study, an optimal number of four are found for the internal skirt spacing. Moreover, to testify the feasibility of internal skirt spacing, a practical project is modeled, which indicates that the optimal internal skirt spacing can satisfy the requirements of towing.

Keywords

Skirted foundation / Moses / Floating stability / Towing

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