On October 26, three pile legs of “Zhenhai No.1”300 feet jack-up rigs, piled into the bottom of Yangtze River near ZPMC Oil Rigs & Wind Farm Dept. at 5:00 p.m., and were raised more than 7800 tons of hull for 3 meters over the river during slack water period, which meant the pilling test of pile legs for 36 hours was completely successful. It was also another important node after the successful launch of “Zhenhai No.1”, marking that the pile legs, jack-up system and locking system, designed by ZPMC, had passed the practice check similar to offshore drilling, the company said in its press release.
The platform was moved by tugboat and fastened by anchor cable and tugboat during the test. The test started from 5:00 a.m. on October 25. After a serried of steps included moving, berthing, mooring cables and install boarding ladder, “Zhenhai No.1” was floated steadily on Yangtze River, 20 meters far away from the wharf. At 8:30 a.m., the jack-up system was started, the test begun, the pile legs were driven into the soil. In order to avoid the overturn and damage of platform by the severe environment, ZPMC also carried out a loading test to check whether the platform could stand in the river. After 8 hours observation, the platform stood steadily. Until now, “Zhenhai No.1” pilling test was completed successfully.
"Zhenhai No.1” was the first platform whose pilling test of pile legs was carried out in Yangtze River. Due to more sludge, softer soil, and thinner pan in the Yangtze River, experts said that such a kind of test would take more risk in Yangtze River. To ensure the success of pilling test, ZPMC set up a headquarters of pilling and wrote concrete test schedule through detailed calculation.
"Zhenhai No.1” jack-up platform would be carried out pile splice and cantilever loading tests. The success of pilling test laid the foundation for the following tests.