The effect of optimum launching on the reduction of offshore jacket weight

Launching method is commonly applied for installation of heavy template (jacket) platforms. One of the important phases in design and construction of offshore platforms is launching condition. This will insure the safty of the procedure and will optimize the weight of the related members of the jacket. In this article, effective factors and amount of forces that applied on steel jacket during launching and the minimum distance of jacket to sea bed are studied through a parametric analysis. For simulation of the launching procedure the technical softwate of SACS is applied. The analyses are applied on two jackets installed in Persian Gulf. The initial tilting angle, draft, and bouyancy are among the parameters which are studied. The results of the study show that the tilting angle and bouyancy are the most effective parameters which reduce the launching forces up to 20%. The study shows that optimizing the procedure of launching in the case of the jackets of the present study can reduce the weight up to 4 percent.