NUMERICAL INVESTIGATIONS ON THE EFFECTS OF SEABED SHALLOW SOILS ON A TYPICAL DEEPWATER SUBSEA WELLHEAD SYSTEM

Abstract

Deepwater subsea wellheads may be significantly threatened under extreme sea conditions and operations, especially when the seabed is composed of very soft clay properties. A numerical model of a deepwater wellhead system is established using the classic ocean pipe element and nonlinear spring element of ANSYS to examine the behaviors of subsea wellheads in diverse seabed soil. Nonlinear spring elements coded in the APDL language are used to model three types of seabed soils: very soft soil, soft soil, and firm soil. The dynamic and quasi-static behaviors of the wellhead system in the typical coupled and decoupled models of the drilling riser system are particularly investigated in depth. The effects of the nonlinear seabed soil properties on the detailed wellhead are realistically simulated using time domain and extremum analysis. The results show that the softer the seabed soil, the greater the displacement, rotation angle, curvature, and bending moment of deepwater subsea wellheads. When the seabed soil reaches a particular depth, the mechanical characteristics of the wellheads under the three types of seabed soil conditions are almost simultaneously close to zero. Overall, several conclusions reached in this study may provide some useful references for design and stability analysis.