Offshore Oil

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Offshore Oil Gas Asset Integrity
ManagementApplied to Wind EnergyDr Mark
Volanthen
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Insensys Background

• Deploying fiber optic load measurement technology
  in harsh environments
• Focused on two markets
• Offshore oil gas
• Wind energy
• Many parallels can be drawn between both
  industries
• Harsh nature of environment
• Uncertain nature of excitation
• High asset cost
• Downtime expensive
• Difficult and expensive to access asset
• Reasons for monitoring
• Use of measurement data
• Packaging of instrumentation
• Retrofit and greenfield installation

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Technology

• Optical fibre strain sensors
• Ruggedly packaged for deployment using a
  composite carrier
• Solid state readout optoelectronics designed for
  harsh environments

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Oil Gas Application

• Monitoring of subsea riser pipes and flowlines
• 8 pipe 6000 long behaves like a string
• Dynamically excited by currents, waves, vessel
  motion
• Fatigue can rapidly accumulate when vortex
  induced vibrations occur

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Wind Turbine Application

• Monitoring of blades
• Dynamically excited by
• Wind
• Tower motion
• Waves

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Drivers for Monitoring

• Same drivers across both industries
• Design validation
• Comparing actual loads with loads predicted
  during design
• Operational control
• Changing asset configuration in response to loads
• Condition monitoring
• Continual monitoring of asset integrity

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Design Validation Oil Gas

• Expansion buckle of high temperature, high
  pressure flowline
• Buckle initiated with buoyancy to reduce friction
  with seabed
• Shape of buckle region monitored and compared
  with predictions

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Design Validation - Wind

• Subaru 80 2MW downwind turbine
• Instrumented hub, shaft, blades, nacelle,
  gearbox, tower
• Measurements compared with theoretical
  predictions

Data courtesy of Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd
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Operational Control Oil Gas

• Gulf of Mexico deepwater (6000ft) drilling riser
  (21 diameter)
• Drill / no-drill decision based on loads
• Adjustment to riser top tension
• Dynamic vessel positioning based on riser load
  data

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Operational Control - Wind

• Independent pitch control
• Blade load data as controller input
• Blade pitch angles independently optimised
• Benefits
• Reduces loads in blades, shaft, drive train
• Provides cost savings through reduced material
• Or larger rotors on given nacelle and tower

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Condition Monitoring Oil Gas

• Gulf of Mexico deepwater riser
• Excitation in splash zone particularly uncertain
• Loads monitored and fatigue calculated

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Condition Monitoring - Wind

• Drive train vibration measurement for condition
  monitoring well established
• Blade condition monitoring not yet widely
  deployed
• Blade load history
• Blade fatigue
• Rotor balance

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Summary

• Insensys supplies load monitoring instrumentation
  to both oil gas and wind energy industries
• Many parallels can be drawn between industries
• Both industries use instrumentation for design
  verification and operational control
• There may be more to learn from the offshore
  industry about condition monitoring

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