Design of an Intelligent De-Icing System for Offshore Structures

Abstract

The offshore activities in cold waters have moved from shallow to deep sea waters, which require different operations as compared to activities in hot sea water. Such offshore operations in cold regions like arctic may be effected by the ice accretion on deck and other areas of structure. Ice mainly accretes from both sea spray and atmospheric icing, which can create problems for operational environment and safety of people working on offshore structures in cold regions. In this research a lab based experimental study has been carried out to preliminary design and test an intelligent thermal anti/de-icing system. The experimental study was carried out in cold room chamber of Narvik University College, where temperature can be well controlled between +10 to-30 °C. The proposed intelligent thermal based deicing system can be used to control the communication between icing sensors, weather station, heating devices and central control unit. In this preliminary design phase, a simple surface temperature control method has been developed and tested that can further provides an efficient thermal deicing method and will also be capable to control the surface temperature of objects of interest in cold regions