Influence of Soil's Vertical Stiffness on Estimation of Fatigue Life for Steel Catenary Risers (Scrs)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianchun Cao ◽  
Jingyun Cheng ◽  
Peimin Cao ◽  
Xingnian Chen
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ghiath Guy Mansour

Abstract Fatigue is a primary challenge in the design of steel catenary risers (SCRs) and different measures and methods are utilized to mitigate it. Traditional upset ends and steel lazy wave risers (SLWRs) are such methods to mitigate fatigue. SLWRs were first used in 2009 on the Espirito Santo floating, production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel of Shell Company's Parque das Conchas (BC-10) project offshore Brazil. SLWRs have been used increasingly since then and gained popularity especially in recent years. A novel patented tubular connection assembly referred to as Flared Thickened Ends (FTEs) improves the fatigue life of SCRs and welded connections in general. This novel assembly has many advantages. It overcomes the thickness limitation of welding traditional upset ends and reduces offshore welding time, cost, and risk. When FTEs are used in simple SCRs, they render simple SCRs a robustly viable alternative at significantly lower cost, shorter schedule, and with many additional advantages as compared to SLWRs. Of the many advantages, simple SCRs are more straightforward to configure, analyze, design, and install using varied installation methods and vessels. Simple SCRs use less materials and offer better long-term integrity, especially for insulated SCRs. In addition, they have a smaller footprint and are less prone to clashing than SLWRs.


Author(s):  
Rupak Ghosh ◽  
Haydar Arslan

Abstract The Liza risers comprise production risers, water injection risers and gas injection risers, and a lazy wave configuration is selected considering FPSO motion, reservoir fluid and overall project execution requirements. During operation, the risers are expected to move cyclically with small vertical displacement amplitudes (e.g. 0.1% to 1% of the riser diameter), and a key design issue is the fatigue life of these risers at critical locations including the touch-down zone which will be governed by the seabed stiffness. The role of soil response on fatigue life of riser with buoyancy has been investigated through nonlinear finite element and comprehensive lab and field testing program. Published methodologies for determining seabed stiffness values for risers concentrate more on larger amplitude motions based on the design requirements of steel catenary risers. The paper presents the sensitivity of the fatigue life at TDP to various soil model and provides insight in the results. Also included is the importance of site specific soil investigation in the context of design of riser.


Author(s):  
Marcos V. Rodrigues ◽  
Caroline Ferraz ◽  
Danilo Machado L. da Silva ◽  
Bruna Nabuco

With new discoveries in the Brazilian Pre-Salt area, the oil industry is facing huge challenges for exploration in ultra-deep waters. The riser system, to be used for the oil transportation from seabed to the production unit, is one of them. The definition of riser configurations for ultra-deep waters is a real challenge. Problems have being identified for flexible risers, hybrid risers and steel catenary risers (SCR) configurations to comply with rules requirements and criteria in water depths of 2000m. The objective of this work is to present a study on the fatigue behavior of a Steel Catenary Riser in 1800m of water depth. One of the main challenges for SCRs in ultra-deep waters is the fatigue, due to platform 1st order motions, at the touch down zone (TDZ). A case study is presented for a Steel Catenary Riser connected to a semi-submersible platform. The influence of some design and analysis parameters is studied in order to evaluate their impact on the SCR fatigue life. The main parameters to be evaluated in this work are: The mesh refinement, in the global analysis, at the Touch Down Zone; The internal fluid density variation along the riser, and; The 1st order platform motions applied to the top of riser; In addition to the results of this paper, some highlights are presented for SCR analysis in similar conditions.


Author(s):  
Claudio Marcio Silva Dantas ◽  
Jose´ Renato Mendes de Sousa ◽  
Fernando Jorge Mendes de Sousa ◽  
Marcos Queija de Siqueira ◽  
Isai´as Quaresma Masetti

PETROBRAS has been developing several studies in order to verify the structural feasibility of SCRs connected to production units such as FPSOs, semi-submersible and monocolumn platforms. Due to the great stresses developed at the top region as a consequence of the platforms rotation movements, robust stress joints or flex joints are always required to connect the SCRs to the platforms. However, those components may add high costs to any project, mainly where titanium is required. In attempt to avoid this fact, the objective of this work is to present a new top connection system called “Suspender”. This system is composed by the SCR, a mooring line segment, a flexible jumper and a “Y” shaped steel connector, and has the advantage of reducing the transmission of bending moments from the platform to the SCR. The performance of this alternative was compared to a more conventional one, composed by a SCR and a flex joint, and the obtained results indicate that this new system reduces the maximum stresses at the top region without changing the SCR behavior at the TDZ. It is also possible to extend the fatigue life by changing the SCR configuration.


2012 ◽  
Vol 238 ◽  
pp. 358-361
Author(s):  
Bing Jun Si ◽  
Qiao Jin

Aimed at deep-sea steel catenary risers(SCRs) transporting supercritical or dense CO2, this paper uses the macroscopic pipeline-transporting finite element model and the microscopic pipewall crack growth model to numerically simulate corrosive-inwall-defect-induced crack extension along radial direction for the deep-sea riser which is subjected to wave and current loads. Meanwhile, based on linear elastic fracture mechanics and fatigue crack extension theory, the effect of wave height on the fatigue life of the pipewall at touchdown zone is discussed. The above-mentioned study in this paper is expected to give a good reference to the similar study for oil&gas SCRs.


Author(s):  
Ricardo Franciss ◽  
Enrique Casaprima Gonzales ◽  
Jose´ Carlos Lima de Almeida ◽  
Jairo Bastos de Arau´jo ◽  
Antonio Carlos Fernandes

Due to the 2200m water depth and harsher environmental conditions, one option that Petrobras is considering for the production of the Pre-Salt fields is the use of a subsurface buoy known as a Buoy Supporting Riser (BSR). It is composed of a subsurface tethered buoy, flexible jumpers connecting the Floating Production Unit (FPU) to the BSR and Steel Catenary Risers (SCRs) connecting the BSR to the flowlines on the sea bottom. The main advantages of this system are that it decouples the FPU motions from the SCRs, reducing fatigue damage in the touch down zone. It may also be installed independently of the FPU, except for the flexible jumpers, which would reduce the risers load on the FPU. Petrobras has been studying this concept since 1997 and has established, as a final stage of the study, a field test with the actual installation of the BSR. This was performed through an alternative method using only Petrobras AHTS boats, in order to avoid critical and expensive resources such as lift barges. With the purpose of validating this new installation procedure, Petrobras performed the referred installation of a 27.2m × 27.2m square ring shaped buoy in Congro Field in the Campos Basin over a water depth of 500m. The buoy was positioned at 80m depth, where the incidence of loads caused by waves is negligible, thus increasing the fatigue life of risers. After the BSR installation, the riser pull-in procedure was also conduced. This paper describes why this technology is necessary for these fields and the model tests made to validate the installation procedures. It also discusses how Petrobras tested the pull-in operations for two flexible risers after the actual buoy was installed. Monitoring systems were designed to check all forces and displacements during the referred installation. These actions will consolidate the BSR technology for Petrobras leading to another riser system option for production in ultra deep waters.


Author(s):  
Jack Pollack ◽  
Kent B. Davies ◽  
David C. Riggs

Until recently, the feasibility of connecting Steel Catenary Risers (SCRs) to monohull FPU / FPSOs (Floating Production Units / Floating Production Storage Offloading) had not been proven for deepwaters offshore Brazil. Extreme deepwater applications have required the use of steel risers to avoid hydrostatic collapse. Since SCRs are usually limited by fatigue, due to seabed interaction in the Touch Down Zone (TDZ), the effect of monohull vessel motions on SCR fatigue life had been an issue to be resolved. In the past, only semi-submersibles had been considered for these Brazil applications. Today it can be shown that spread-moored ship-shapes are sufficiently stable for the connection of several large diameter SCRs.


Author(s):  
Ghiath (Guy) Mansour

Abstract Fatigue is a primary challenge in the design of steel catenary risers (SCRs) and different measures and methods are utilized to mitigate it. Traditional upset ends and steel lazy wave risers (SLWRs) are such methods to mitigate fatigue. SLWRs were first used in 2009 on the Espirito Santo floating, production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel of Shell Company’s Parque das Conchas (BC-10) project offshore Brazil. SLWRs have been used increasingly since then and gained popularity especially in recent years. A novel patented tubular connection assembly is presented herein which improves the fatigue life of SCRs and welded connections in general. This novel tubular connection assembly has many advantages. It overcomes the thickness limitation of welding traditional upset ends and reduces offshore welding time, cost, and risk. When used in simple SCRs, this novel tubular connection assembly renders simple SCRs an alternative robustly viable at significantly lower cost, shorter schedule, and many additional advantages as compared to SLWRs. Of such many advantages, simple SCRs are simpler to configure, analyze, design, and install using wider installation methods and vessels. They also use less material and offer better short- and long-term integrity especially for insulated SCRs. In addition, they have smaller footprint and are less prone to clashing.


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