ARCHIVES OF MECHANICAL, ELECTRICAL AND CIVIL ENGINEERING

Vol.2, No.2, 2015

http://dx.doi.org/10.18280/amece.020204

DESIGN OF CANTILEVER GEAR-RACK DRIVING SYSTEM ON JACK-UP

DRILLING PLATFORM
WANG Longting*, XU Xingping and LIU Guangdou

*College of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China),
Qingdao, 266580, China.
Email: wanglt198403@aliyun.com
ABSTRACT
In order to realize a continuous and smooth sliding of the cantilever on jack-up drilling platform, Gear-Rack system is
adopted to drive the longitudinal movement of the cantilever. Taking a certain jack-up drilling platform as an example, the
overall structure of the cantilever was designed firstly. The mode called motor & gearbox & a small drive wheel & rack
was adopted to drive the longitudinal movement of the cantilever. The required thrust to move the cantilever was determined
by the cantilever structure and weight & center of gravity of the equipment on the cantilever. The geometric parameters of the
cantilever Gear-Rack were designed, and the strength of Gear-Rack structure was checked using finite element analysis. The
results show that the parameters of Gear-Rack are reasonable; the strength meets the design requirements.

Keywords: Jack-up drilling platform, Cantilever beam, Gear-Rack, Structure design, Strength checking.

2. CALCULATION OF MAXIMUM THRUST TO

MOVE THE CANTILEVER

1. INTRODUCTION
Cantilever jack-up drilling platform is the main equipment
in offshore petroleum exploration and development [1-3],
which can drill cluster wells with the help of longitudinal and
transverse movement of drilling module. There are mainly
three kinds of cantilever in jack-up platforms: classic
cantilever, X-Y cantilever and rotating cantilever [4-6].
Traditional cantilever, which is that cantilever slips along the
platform base longitudinally and drilling module slips along
transverse girder on the cantilever laterally, is favored by
platform design and manufacturing company due to technical
maturity and relatively low cost. Nowadays, the mostly
widely used cantilever slipping modes on jack up platform
are pawl skidding mode, hinge pin skidding mode of
hydraulic displacement, Gear-Rack skidding mode [7].
Traditional cantilever is generally moved by the aid of
hydraulic power, which is named hydraulic cylinder &
pawl mode [8]. The mode is relatively mature and reliable in
the technique, and it can be achieved step-slip. Relying on the
intermittent reciprocating driving of the hydraulic cylinder,
the cantilever moves slowly, and the ballast blocks need to be
pulled manually. So the operation is complicated, the
working efficiency is low. In addition, the manufacture and
installation of the hydraulic driving system is difficult. The
application of Gear-Rack mode is relatively narrow, but it
can achieve continuous steady slipping, and the slipping
velocity can be adjusted according to need. So the research of
convenient movement, easily to manufacture of the GearRack skidding cantilever can improve the efficiency of
offshore drilling.

Cantilever system, as a longitudinal movement structure

for platform drilling and workover, mainly composed of the
cantilever, driving system, cantilever base, cantilever locking
mechanism and other components. The main design
parameters of the cantilever beam system are as follows:

Maximum Design Combined Load of Cantilever and

Drill Floor: 540t;

Maximum Cantilever Longitudinal Outreach of

Rotary Table Center: 40ft/12m;

Maximum Transverse Movement of Drill Floor: +/12ft/3.66m;

Derrick Foot Dimensions: 30ft 30ft/9.144m

9.144m.
The cantilever is designed as a box-shaped cross-sectional
configuration, i.e., " shaped structure, is 30m length and
4.7m high. The width and thickness of the upper and lower
flange beams are 950mm and 50mm, respectively. The web
of the cantilever has four kinds of thickness: 26mm, 28mm,
32mm and 36mm. The web is very high, therefore, the
stiffener, whose cross section is T-shaped structure, should be
located at both ends to prevent web buckling. The width of
the cantilever base is 15m. Two transverse guide rails, whose
centre is 5.3m to the stern, connect to the upper of box girder.
In the process of moving the cantilever, the supporting
force of the stern and bow are constantly changing.
Obviously, while the cantilever outreach to the most distal
end and the drill floor move maximum distance transversely,
the supporting force is the maximum, and at this time, the

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drill floor move maximum distance transversely, the

supporting force is the maximum, and at this time, the thrust
to move the cantilever will be needed most [9]. Weight and
drill floor move to the maximum (origin is supposed at the
centre of the stern of the cantilever).

centre of gravity of the cantilever rig are shown in Figure 1

when the cantilever outreach to the most distal end and the

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of loads applied on cantilever beam

the point A, B of the weight of the drill floor and the
transverse rail can be depicted as follows:
(1)

In Figure 1,
refers to weight of the drill floor,
refers to weight of transverse rails,
refers to weight of
cantilever beam, and
refers to weight of pipe rack. When
the drill floor traverse to the far left, the left cantilever will
bear the maximum load, so the force analysis of the left
cantilever only need to be researched.
Among them, the weight of the cantilever beam and the
pipe rack evenly distributed load in the left cantilever beam at
corresponding position (point H and point K in Figure 1); the
four points A, B, C and D evenly bear the weight of transverse
rail; the four points M, N, P, and Q evenly bear the weight of
the drill floor.
The transverse guide rails is simplified as a Simplysupported beam, so the equivalent supported force applied on

(2)
In Eq.(1) and Eq.(2), |QD|, |ND|, |BD|, |PC|, |MC| and |AC|
are denoted the length between point Q and point D, point N
and point D, point B and point D, point P and point C, point
M and point C, point A and point C, respectively.
So the forced applied on the left cantilever beam can be
gotten, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Schematic diagram of loads applied on left cantilever beam

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So the supported force applied on the point E of stern of

vessel
and point G of forehead
of cantilever is 930.43t
and 380.43t, respectively.
The contact between lower faceplate of cantilever and
HOLD-DOWN on the forehead of cantilever and PUSH-UP
on the stern of vessel belongs to rigid friction, the friction
coefficient is 0.12(lubricate). So the minimum thrust need to
move cantilever is:
(3)

thrust need to move cantilever is 157.3t; and drive motor and

power machine work steadily. First, the parameters of GearRack are designed in accordance with the bending fatigue
strength of tooth roots, and then check the strength of GearRack according to the above two criteria based on the relevant
parameters.
3.1 Material Selection
Materials must meet the work requirements, and need to
consider the size of gears, gear manufacturing molding
process; normalized carbon steel gear cant withstand severe
shock loads, and it can only work under conditions of mild
shock or smooth; tempering carbon steel gear can withstand
moderate shock loads; and the alloy can withstand high-speed,
heavy and shock loads;
The cantilever gear should withstand heavy loads, so alloy
steel hardened gear is applied on the cantilever. The GearRack material in this case is hardened steel 20CrMnTi, which
is treated by carburizing, quenching, tempering, nitriding. The
main characteristic parameters are as shown in Table 1.

3. GEAR-RACK DESIGN
Broken, spot corrosion, worn and plastic deformation
constitutes the main failure mode of gear [10]. In order not to
make the gear failure, gear must have sufficient bearing
capacity. The main two design criteria for gear failure are the
bending fatigue strength of tooth roots and contact fatigue
strength of tooth surfaces [11].
The known conditions designing Gear-Rack structure are:
moving velocity
of cantilever is 0.03m/s; the minimum

Table 1. Gear-Rack characteristic parameters

Gear-Rack Material

20CrMnTi

Elastic Modulus E

20600MPa

Tensile Strength

1079MPa

Yield Strength

834MPa

Contact Fatigue Strength Limit of Tooth Surfaces

1500MPa

Bending Fatigue Strength Limit of Tooth Roots

500MPa

Hardness

57-63HRC

3.2 Parameters Design of Gear-Rack

Modification coefficient
is taken as 0.32 according to
teeth and variable coefficient selection principle [11].
Loads vary not much, and the hardness of Gear-Rack is
greater than 350HBW, so that coefficient of tooth width
is
taken as
, primarily taken as 0.45.
Module of gear is designed according to the bending fatigue
strength of tooth roots.

In conditions of steady load, hard-toothed surface, opengear, heavy duty drive, the number of teeth range from 17 to
24, so the number of gear teeth ( ) should be chose small
value 17.
Undercutting of Gear-Rack can be avoided by applying
modified gear; and the strength of the tooth surface contact
and tooth root bending strength can be improved; the antibonding capacity and wear resistance of the tooth surface can
be also improved.

(4)
In Eq.(4), each symbol values are shown in Table 2.

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Table 2. Gear-Rack calculation parameters

Symbol

Name

Value

Loading Factor

1.2

Symbol

Torque of Gear

Coefficient of Tooth Width

12

Name

Value

Number of Gear Teeth

17

Gear Form Factor

4.23

Allowable Bending Stres

800MPa

principle. Thus, the geometric size of Gear-Rack is shown in

Table 3.

The data in Table 2 substituted in Eq.(4),

is gotten to be
28.3. So
is taken as 32 according to the modulus selection

Table 3. Geometric size of Gear-Rack

Name

Calculating
Formula
&
Code

Calculating
Formula & Code

Value

Name

Number of
Gear
Teeth

17

Modification
Coefficient

Modulus

32mm

Helix
Angle

Pressure
Angle

20

Coefficient of Tooth
Width

0.44

Addendu
m
Coefficien
t

Standard
Diameter

544mm

Tip
Clearance
Coefficien
t

0.25

Tooth
Width

Value

0.32

Rack

240mm

Gear

250mm

Pitch

3.3 Fatigue Strength Checking of Gear-Rack

(5)

Fatigue strength of Gear-Rack is checked according to

criteria bending fatigue strength of tooth roots and contact
fatigue strength of tooth surfaces, respectively. Allowable
contact stress
, allowable bending stress
, actual
calculated contact stress
and actual calculated bending
stress
of gear are calculated shown in Eq.(5) to Eq.(8)
below.

(6)
(7)
(8)
In the above Formulas, the value and significance of the
symbols are shown in Table 4.

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Table 4. Fatigue strength calculation parameters of Gear-Rack

Item & Name

Value

Item & Name

Value

Impact Factor affected by Lubricant Film

1.0

Node Area Coefficient

2.5

Tooth Surface Work Hardening Coefficient

1.0

Elasticity Coefficient

Dimensional Factor

1.0

Coincidence Coefficient

0.89

Helix Angle Factor

1.25

Width of Tooth
Service Factor

240mm
1.10

Stress Modification Coefficient

Dynamic Load Factor

1.01

Contact Fatigue Strength Limit

1500MPa

Load Sharing Coefficient

Bending Fatigue Strength

500Mpa

Load Sharing Coefficient

1.0

Relative Notch Sensitivity Factor

1.0

Composite Tooth Coefficient

4.23

Coefficient of the Relative Gear Root Surface Condition

1.0

Helix Angle Factor

1.0

Dimensional Factor

0.85

Coincidence Coefficient

0.71

Single Tooth Contact Ratio

1.0

1.6

Life Factor

1.52
1.1

Minimum Safety Factor

Note: Gear speed

, mesh times of same tooth surface per revolution
each well movement spending two hours, so gear working life
Note: Gear cantilever supported, so coefficient of tooth width
,

got,
,
.
, and
, so Strength of
Gear-Rack meets the requirements. The parameters of GearRack are determined as: the material is 20CrMnTi, accuracy
class is 6; gear modulus is 32mm; number of teeth is 17;
modification coefficient is 0.32; width of gear is 250mm,
width of rack is 240mm.
Based

on

189.8

the
,

above

values,

substituted,

1.20

. Supposed 50 years of working years, a 12-year moving wells,

, Load cycles
;
.

the maximum stress and maximum deformation of Gear-Rack

structure meet the requirements.

4 STRENGTH FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF

GEAR-RACK
Figure 3. Equivalent stress distribution of Gear-Rack

According to the calculation of Gear-Rack parameters seen

from the previous section, the contact finite element model of
Gear-Rack is build using finite element analysis software
ANSYS [12].
Under the conditions: the bore of gear is fully constrained,
the movement in the vertical direction of rack is constrained,
the rack is loaded 157.3 t horizontal external force, the stress
distribution of Gear-Rack will be calculated. Figure 3 shows
the equivalent stress distribution. As can be seen from Figure
3, besides the significantly stress concentration of contact of
the tooth root, the larger stress area is concentrated in contact
between the teeth. So as can be seen from the analysis results,

5. CONCLUSIONS
In combination with a cantilever jack-up drilling platform
structure, steps and methods are given for Gear-Rack structure
design of cantilever longitudinal slip system.
Strength checking results and finite element analysis results
show that cantilever Gear-Rack slip system is feasible. The
Gear-Rack slip system can achieve continuous steady slipping,
and the slipping velocity can be adjusted according to need.

19

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors wish to thank the members of Shandong
Offshore Petroleum Drilling Equipment Engineering
Technology Research Center, College of Mechanical and
Electronic Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East
China) for their support and help. This work was supported by
the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central University
(No. 14CX02078A, No. 14CX02129A).
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