EWSHM2016, Bilbao, SPAIN New generation of flexible risers equipped with motion capture Morphopipe System N. SAGUIN-SPRYNSKI 1 , M. CARMONA 1 , L. JOUANET 1 , O. DELCROIX 2 1 CEA, LETI, Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France – 2 Technip, Flexifrance, Le Trait, France [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] Riser integrity management can be performed at different levels. As a first indicator, the system compare the actual curvature and angle versus the expected envelop. This validate the expected and safe riser behaviour and alert the operator if required. Data from Morphopipe combined with other data from monitoring systems or inspections can give refined indication on the status of the riser. Morphopipe will provide valuable data for accurate re-assessment of the fatigue. The calculated life span of the riser can be updated. Through FORSYS Subsea, the alliance between FMC Technologies and TECHNIP, Morphopipe data will act as an additional enabler of pro-active condition-based maintenance so as to increase uptime and accelerate decision time. CONTEXT, CHALLENGES MONITORING SOFTWARE ASSIOCIATED SERVICES METHODOLOGY AND VALIDATION Summary Structural dynamic monitoring is a fundamental element for predictive maintenance of flexible risers, subject to harsh constraints. The collaboration CEA/Technip resulted in a new solution with MEMS accelerometers, called Morphopipe. The flexible riser equipped with the Morphopipe system allows the estimate of the consumed service life via the curvature knowledge. The context, the technology and the algorithms will be mentioned, as well as the industrial integration at manufacturing stage and the added values of such a system. Use of MEMS accelerometers in manufacture challenge Structural monitoring of flexibles • Flexible risers: multilayers structures to convoy oil/gas offshore • Harsh constraints over 20 years • Curvature at the bend stiffener: main parameter to estimate (detection of extreme events, involved in cumulated fatigue) • Needed to improve safety and will potentially extend lifetime • Expertise in shape/motion capture via inertial sensors in CEA • Need to use highly performant 1-axis MEMS accelerometers • Instrumentation have to be embedded, in a non-accessible zone during life time, with a process compatible with each project [specific requirements: water depth, sea state, pressure, temperature…] • Additional instrumented layer, compliant with riser design and industrial manufacture • Reliability considerations: reliable sensors, redundancy, architecture and encapsulation designed for ATEX and IECEx certification • Calibration process dedicated in order to provide accurate final data Schematization of the layout of a riser instrumented with the Morphopipe system The data acquisition unit and supervision software has been specifically developed based on CyXense® from Cybernetix. It allows: • The supervision of the electronic cards (power supply, communication) for up to ten risers at the same time • Administration and logs (user accounts, health check, historical logs) • Display of data (maximum, direction, profile, localisation) and alerts • Possibility for standard communication protocol to other system (Modbus) Screenshots of the monitoring software (left: view of alerts tab; right: view on direction of bending plane, location and value of maximum curvature) INDUSTRIAL INTEGRATION Left: Experimental dynamic setup at Technip/Flexi-France site – Flexible riser instrumented by 5 external rings of 2 nodes and reconstructed flexible riser superimposed (colours for variations of curvature). Right: values of curvature along the instrumented section, compared to the radius of the davier Schematization of the Morphopipe principle and architecture. By deploying at least two 1-axis MEMS, the system creates instrumented rings. The rings act as inclinometers measuring the tilt of the tangent at discrete times and at different points of the central axis The curvature is the space- derivative of the tilt function, thus is computed in filtering in space and time the tilts Simplified view of electronic prototype embedded within riser The Morphopipe layer assembly is performed manually, step by step, at the entry point for the manufacturing machine at Flexi-France. Then, standard processes are used to cover and protect it: High strength tapes and Plastic sheathing