Flexible Approaches to Risk-Based Inspection of FPSOs

Abstract

fax 01-972-952-9435. AbstractAs the FPSO fleet matures, the challenge of how to more rationally and efficiently manage the life-cycle integrity of an FPSO attracts more attention. Risk and reliability based approaches are regarded as very powerful tools to help optimize an integrity program and offer flexibility in helping better manage the integrity management regime.ABS has developed a multi-level risk-based inspection methodology ranging from simplified deterministic approaches using standard design analysis up to sophisticated probabilistic approaches. Each approach has various levels of usefulness ranging from the definition of critical areas for a single inspection campaign up to the generation of an optimized inspection schedule and work scope covering the entire lifecycle of a particular unit. These RBI methodologies have been successfully applied in inspection planning for several FPSO installations. A wide range of engineering analyses were involved, depending on the needs of individual projects and client requests, inspection objectives, condition of the asset, availability of design analysis information, etc.In line with the various levels of assessment defined above, ABS has also started developing an automated RBI assessment tool which is discussed at the end of this paper.

Quantifying uncertainties for Risk-Based Inspection planning using in-service Hull Structure Monitoring of FPSO hulls

“…RBI methods can be deployed at different stages of the lifetime of an offshore unit. [30] shows the development of inspection planning during the initial stages of the FPSO field development. [31] shows a similar analysis for a jackup structure and indicates when inspection should take place to maintain the pre-defined risk level.…”

A Review of Nondestructive Examination Methods for New-building Ships Undergoing Classification Society Survey

“…There are specific standards for adopting risk-based inspection methods for plant and process equipment [19], [20], [21], and [23], [24], [25], and [26] and there are many software packages supporting operators in implementing such approaches, for example RiskWISE® [27]. In the offshore sector, such approaches have been used particularly for jacket structures, semisubmersibles, and FPSOs integrity management [28], [29]. In the shipping sector, periodic inspections have traditionally being carried out.…”

Critical success factors of risk‐based inspection

“…Throughout the years, a great deal of research has been conducted in the area of risk-based approaches. It started with the inspection and maintenance planning for fixed steel offshore structures [79][80][81][82] and later the usage of the same methodology was expanded to other areas and structures such as breakwaters [83], pipelines [84][85][86][87][88], ships and tankers [89][90][91][92][93][94], petroleum facilities [48,95,96], process plants [97,98], and bridges [99,100]. Not only has it expanded to various area of application, research on risk-based approach has also flourished in several new areas of study such as risk-based integrity modeling [67][68][69][70][71][72][101][102][103][104][105], risk-based optimization modeling [106,107], failure probability analysis [108,109], and human error reliability [110][111][112][113][114][115]…”