Crack monitoring for Oil & Gas structures, FPSO, and vessels

Cracks in offshore structures

Cracked offshore structures and vessels have to be repaired to comply with regulations, prevent accidents, and allow continuation of safe operations.
If the crack cannot be removed immediately, classification societies may authorize the continuation of operations for a limited time, provided that the operator takes all measures to limit the associated risks, for instance by monitoring the crack.
Monitoring a crack with traditional NDT techniques is expensive, especially underwater, plus it adversely interferes with operations, resulting in direct and indirect costs per day in the 5-digit range.

Remote Inspection

We provide remote crack monitoring EC systems, leveraging our legacy and compliant underwater EC NDT instrument into structural health monitoring and condition based maintenance. The sensor based monitoring advantageously replaces the frequent inspections required to monitor the crack. The monitoring data are transmitted to a level II EC inspector who can assess the data and validate reports on- or offshore. It can be applied in a wide range of Oil & Gas environments, including UW. Contact us for ATEX, through-wall, and high temperature conditions.

Field proven

Our remote inspection solution has been deployed in more than 10 assets. It is routinely used by testing labs to precisely assess crack growth during fatigue tests.

Lightweight and Cyber safe

The crack monitoring system can be launched in lightweight mode in few hours under rig manager responsibility, i.e. even before IT authorizations for having the system online are obtained. The system can be advantageously deployed in the frame of a standard or ROV based inspection, providing the zero point status of the crack. The system is undemanding in downstream bandwidth, while offering consolidated actionable information such as whether the crack is growing or not. With no interaction with other components and the supervision of an inspector (“man in the loop”), it does not suffer from the cyber security weaknesses of IoT systems.

e-reporting

Our compliant reports are generated at periodic time intervals, defined with the operator. They are continuously available, tamper proofed, independently verifiable, and secure digital equivalents of traditional NDT paper reports.

Business model

We offer project-based solutions for the evaluation of the sensor best matching your needs and for its deployment. A simple subscription agreement is then setup for the monitoring of the crack with the generation of periodic compliant e-reports.

Structural Health Management: Inspect-Monitor-Understand strategy

We support our customers in a 3-step approach: First inspecting the structure using compliant NDT techniques. Then, if a crack is detected, we will deploy a monitoring system aimed at mitigating the associated risks and obtaining a temporary authorisation to continue exploitation. Third, a wide range of additional sensors can be deployed to evaluate the remaining lifetime and understand the origin of the crack, therefore improving future designs.

Other applications

Our crack monitoring product can be advantageously used for transportation (metallic bridges), power gen, and chemical applications, including for high temperature components. Contact us for more information.

Technical Description

Inspection technique: Eddy current Standards: ISO 15548, ISO 15549, ISO 17025 Crack growth sensitivity: 0.5 mm (sensor dependent) Crack depth sensitivity: 1 mm (sensor and crack configuration dependent) Power: 1 W (in operation), 50 mW (sleeping mode) Voltage: 12 V (9 – 42 V possible), UPEC board 5V Sensor type: coil array with four 14×12 mm square coils Sensor material: flexible kapton tape with patterned electrical circuit Inspection frequencies: 50 kHz – 1 MHz Data acquisition rate: 350 Hz UPEC unit dimensions: 50x30x70mm (UW: 150mm x 50mm OD) Communication protocol: CAN bus Connectors: Subconn/McArtney (UW) Communication protocol: CAN bus Deck control unit 220/115V, battery, or solar panel Dimensions: 128x190x280mm Processor: Single board computer with embedded linux Data communication: GSM, Ethernet (possibility to store/retrieve data locally with SD card if the system is not on the internet)