Fatigue-damage localization in steel catenary risers

Abstract

Risers used to transport crude oil require Structural Integrity Management plans and programs to allow proper functioning during its design life. Cyclic loading may cause fatigue damage during operation of the riser. Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is usually applied to detect damages ahead, and be confirmed by non- destructive inspection using remotely operated vehicles. With the information obtained the riser is assessed and if required mitigating measures can be implemented to prevent failure and disasters such as environmental pollution, and human and economic losses. This paper presents a study to locate fatigue damages using signals of the dynamic response. Numerical study cases were defined for a Steel Catenary Riser (SCR) installed in 2000 m water depth. A damage case was considered, decreasing the stiffness value at a specific location of the structure. Dynamic analyses were performed using a commercial software that incorporates nonlinear behavior. The Modal Slope Difference, Modal Slope Difference and Damage Index methods (with two variations) were applied to locate damage. Based on results the MSlD yielded the smallest error values in damage location followed by the Damage Index Method for severity values greater than 6%. Results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology to locate fatigue damages in deep-water SCRs.