Development of Small Concrete Structures for Safe, Economical Production

Abstract

ABSTRACT The interest in concrete structures is presently gaining much attention. This interest is caused by the designers offering optimized structures answering the need to stimulate marginal field developments. Furthermore, the use of high strength concrete, the low installation costs for concrete structures and the need for competition in the platform construction market have enhanced the interest in concrete structures. Small concrete structures are being studied for several applications both as wellhead platforms and small wellhead/process platforms often combined with storage facilities. The paper describes recent development towards optimized small concrete structures for safe, economical production. The following items are in particular highlighted: The design process, concrete material aspects and the importance of the fabrication and installation procedures. Furthermore, the safety of the structures in the fabrication and installation phases are discussed in view of the need to secure the investments. Requirements to secure competitive structures and safe operations are furthermore being reviewed and examples of interesting small concrete solutions are shown. This paper can be seen as a guidance note related to design of safe economical small concrete structures.