Dual-Algorithm Hybrid Method for Riser Structural Health Monitoring Using the Fewest Sensors

Abstract

This study suggests a novel riser structural health monitoring methodology based on a dual algorithm (DA). In this method, the displacement tracing algorithm first traces the node displacement and tension up to the last sensor position called the target point. Then, the movement and tension at the target point are used for boundary conditions of the finite element (FE) simulator to obtain displacements and stresses below the target point. The developed method is validated through numerical simulations by comparing riser behaviors/stresses from the fully coupled model with those from the proposed method with numerical sensors. For that, a moored FPSO (floating production storage offloading) system with SCR (steel catenary riser) or SLWR (steel lazy-wave riser) is employed. Only three angle sensors are used at the top portion to monitor the entire length of riser. Much simpler forced top oscillation method is also investigated, which only uses riser top movement for running FE simulator, which cannot accurately reproduce the dynamics of the upper portion of riser since real-time wave action is ignored. The developed DA riser monitoring methodology can reproduce the movements and stresses along the entire length within around 5% error regardless of riser shapes and materials.