Structural integrity assessment of MCP 01 - Concrete platform

The concrete gravity base platform, MCP-OI, was installed in block 14/9 of the North Sea in 1976. The original certification for the platform was for 20 years. The platform has been re-analysed on behalf of Total Oil Marine pie by a joint venture of Offshore Design Engineering Ltd and McAlpine Design Group. The primary objective of the re-analysis was to verify the structural integrity in order to safely extend the design life of the platform by another 20 years. Many aspects of the structure design were evaluated thus providing a unique opportunity to review the performance after 20 years of operation. The re-analysis included the development of a large global finite element model and number of local models consisting up to 200000 degrees of freedom. Extensive concrete code checking was carried out to limit state of cracking, strength and fatigue for all expected loading. The paper presents the philosophy in the development of the model, loads, and discusses the results of the analysis.