All the structural elements which make up offshore fields are by nature submitted to harsh environmental constraints: seabed to surface liaisons, export lines, mooring systems and all oil & gas operators must keep pace with the technological challenges posed by deeper water depths and increasingly severe weather environments. The top priority is threefold:
to mitigate human and technical risks to protect valuable assets and to limit damages to promote safety and sustainable development
A real time surveillance of structural integrity is an absolute necessity in order to keep under control the overall good condition of the field infrastructure. It really allows to improve asset management and to intervene in case of emergency.
The primary objective is to monitor and predict the behavior of the bottom to surface liaison in order to anticipate excessive wear and fatigue as well as overstress, hence the development of original solutions.
Among technologies that are shaping the future of subsea activities, Asset Integrity is a key trend to optimize lifecycle of fields.
This paper focuses on Riser Integrity Monitoring Purpose, and most particularly on reliable and cutting edge technological solution used to measure the static and dynamic loads imposed to the various kind of Risers to anticipate structural degradation but also to detect structural ruptures. The first is known as a Vibrating Wire Gauge (VWG) for the monitoring of SCR's Hybrid Risers and Riser Towers. The second product uses the Acoustic Emission technology to monitor the integrity of tensile armor wires in flexible pipes.
