The design of a self-propelled jack-up drilling rig for the Chukchi Sea

ConocoPhillips asked the team to design a self propelled jack up drilling rig for exploratory work in the Chukchi Sea, during the warm water season, at a location that is approximately 131 feet (40 meters) in water depth. This was accomplished using computer programs including StabCAD, SolidWorks, AutoCAD, and Visual Analysis. The legs of the jack up were designed to withstand ice collisions with the aid of patrolling ice breakers. The jack up rig had to be capable of traveling at speeds up to 11 knots (5.65 m/s). The stability during transit was analyzed for an intact condition as well as a damaged condition (assuming two ballast tanks are damaged). The centers of gravity and buoyancy were calculated, as well as metacentric height. A geotechnical analysis was performed on the spud cans of the rig. The rig was designed to comply with all safety regulations specified by the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), the Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit (MODU) Rules, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) rules, and the T&R 5-5A Design Criteria set by the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) and Marine Pollution Act (Marpol 73/78).