Flexible Pipe Fatigue Monitoring Below the Bend Stiffener of a Flexible Riser

• Main Authors: ROBERTS DAMON, SUTHERLAND LENNY, SMITH RUSSELL, MANGAL LARS
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 21.07.2011
• Subjects: CALCULATING; COMPUTING; COUNTING; EARTH DRILLING; EARTH DRILLING, e.g. DEEP DRILLING; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS; INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIRCHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; MEASURING; MINING; OBTAINING OIL, GAS, WATER, SOLUBLE OR MELTABLE MATERIALS OR ASLURRY OF MINERALS FROM WELLS; PHYSICS; TESTING

A flexible pipe fatigue monitoring system 30 comprising a pipe monitoring system 32, 40, 42 adapted to be provided on a flexible pipe 10 having a bend stiffener 18. The pipe monitoring system 40, 42 is provided on the pipe 10 below the bend stiffener 18. The monitoring system 32 measures one or more of bending, tension and torsion of the pipe 10. The pipe monitoring system 30 comprises sensor carrier members 40, 42 adapted to be coupled to the pipe 10 and at least one fibre Bragg grating strain sensor embedded in a carrier member 40, 42. An inclinometer 34 is provided on one carrier member 40 to measure the incline of the pipe 10 relative to earth. A central processor 38 is provided to receive bending, tension and torsion information and incline information, and is operable to determine pipe fatigue from said information. A method of flexible pipe fatigue monitoring is also provided.