ROBUSTNESS, REDUNDANCY AND PROGRESSIVE COLLAPSE OF FIXED OFFSHORE STRUCTURES

Abstract

SummaryThe purpose of this paper is to present an evaluation of the robustness of fixed offshore structures, through the understanding of, i) major historical accidents, and its repercussions in the codes and regulations, ii) review the methods used to assure robustness, with special focus in offshore standards, but also with civil Eurocodes; iii) Robustness assessment and measurement and, iv) which factors and mechanical properties of structures influences robustness. To be able to measure the Robustness of a structure under accidental or unforeseen events it is necessary to quantify its ultimate capacity and establish its post collapse behaviour. Therefore, a case study consisting of Non‐Linear analysis (pushover) of a four‐legged jacket is developed using USFOS software, where several structural properties are made variable and the effect in the robustness is measured.