Recovery of a Damaged Jackup Following Hurricane Rita

摘要

The paper describes the analyses and procedures used to recover a jack-up which had been hit by Hurricane Rita and though still standing took on a tilt of three degrees and suffered some leg damage. Initial recovery attempts resulted in further leg damage at which stage it was decided to apply temporary leg strengthening and undertake a more detailed evaluation and analysis of the best methods of recovering the unit. The strength of the soils was found to be providing restraint which helped to support the tilted configuration but was also having the effect of resisting the leveling of the unit and thereby causing further leg damage. The analysis identified the need for a hold-back force during the recovery procedure to prevent further bracing damage in the legs and avoid a complete collapse mechanism developing. A suitable barge pull-back system was developed and in December the operation to recover the unit took place successfully.