Ballasting Jacket Lift System Pioneering Spirit
Customer interests
The Jacket Lift System (JLS), located at the stern of Pioneering Spirit, is designed for the removal and installation of steel piled jackets. The JLS consists of two 170 meter long steel beams, weighing 6,000 tonnes each. How do you lift 2 steel structures, whose center of gravity is on the wrong side of the overturning moment? The answer is applying ballast aft of the hang-off frame and part of the solution is installation of solid heavy ballast. Calculations done by the customer themselves, show that 5,150 tonnes ballast are required per steel beam.
Conditions
The total available volume for installation of 10,299 tonnes of heavy ballast is 2,889 m3, spread over 14 tanks. Target slurry density is determined by 12 critical tanks, with a total volume of 2,342 m3 and an intended fill rate of 98%. As a result, we screen, test and select the available raw materials to achieve a ballast slurry with a density of 3,850 kg/m3 and best price/quality. The exact composition of the ballast product is determined after conducting a full-scale test. This test will confirm whether theory and practice correspond, by means of density workability and stability of the ballast product.
Milestones
- Successful and flexible joint venture, bringing together people with technical and commercial skills from Faber Betonpompen, Staring Machinebouw and Global Ballast Contractors.
- Total installed mass of 10,863 tonnes (23,948,816 lb)
- Average heavy ballast slurry density of 3,915 kg/m3 (244.41 lb/ft3)
- Effective fill rate of 96% v/v
- Smart integrated quality system, registering real time production rates
- In-shore installation on a cargo barge, with a well arranged equipment set-up and efficient supply of pre-mixed raw materials
- Installation pace 16.2 m3/hr gross – 21.1 m3/hr net
