Life Cycle Management of offshore floating structures

A series of workshops will be conducted to look at issues including pitting and corrosion, prediction technology and comparative studies on thickness measurement and to develop recommended practices for corrosion and thickness management. Floating hull structures tend to have heavy wear and fatigue patterns and the JIP data will be used to provide more realistic predictions to the industry.

George Wang, ABS Senior Managing Principal Engineer, who will serve as the JIP secretary, says that ABS will lead the task force on corrosion in FPSOs. This group will conduct comparative studies on long-term prediction of corrosion wastage with the objective of developing recommended practices for thickness measurement. Class NK and Technical University of Lisbon have agreed to join the comparative study while MODEC and Class NK will be sharing data of corroded plates.

Specifically, the JIP will examine aging and corrosion from a structural integrity point-of-view, the impact of aging and corrosion on strength and fatigue of hull structures, repair and maintenance technologies including the development of state-of-the-art sensor technologies to support condition monitoring, review of asset integrity management practices and review of risk-based inspection methods in lieu of rules and reliability targets. Ultimately, the JIP will make recommendations to the industry for life cycle management practices and guidelines.