Chapters authored
Mooring Integrity Management: Novel Approaches Towards In Situ Monitoring
The recent dramatic fluctuations in oil and gas prices are forcing operators to look at radically new ways of maintaining the integrity of their structures. Moreover, the life of old structures has to be extended. This includes the replacement of expensive periodic in-service inspections with cost-efficient structural health monitoring (SHM) with permanently installed sensors. Mooring chains for floating offshore installations, typically designed for a 25-year service life, are loaded in fatigue in a seawater environment. There is no industry consensus on failure mechanisms or even defect initiation that mooring chains may incur. Moorings are safety-critical areas, which by their nature are hazardous to inspect. Close visual inspection in the turret is usually too hazardous for divers, yet is not possible with remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), because of limited access. Conventional non-destructive techniques (NDTs) are used to carry out inspections of mooring chains in the turret of floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) units. Although successful at detecting and assessing the fatigue cracks, the hazardous nature of the operation calls for remote techniques that can be applied continuously to identify damage initiation and progress. Appropriate replacement plans must enhance current strategies by implementing real-time data retrofit.
Part of the book: Structural Health Monitoring