Optimal Inspection Methodology for Offshore Structures Based on an Economic Decision Theory

Author(s):  
Saul Florentino ◽  
David De Leon ◽  
Jorge Silva

About 200 marine platforms are installed in the Mexican sector of the Gulf of Mexico so that maintenance and inspection schedules play an important role to avoid excessive structural deterioration of the oil facilities and at the same time to keep the facilities within acceptable safety margins. Large costs associated with inspection and repair actions moved managers towards the application of an optimal strategy in order to minimize inspection expenses. For these purposes, it is necessary to consider deterioration process such as fatigue crack growth under the influence of uncertain wave loading which is the dominant force while effort is focused on maintaining structural integrity and safe production. This paper presents an optimal inspection methodology for offshore structures based on an economic decision theory, bearing in mind that large costs are associated with structural failure and extensive inspection and repairs. A system failure analysis of a given sub set of the critical structural components is included as well as a mathematical framework for the assessment of failure and repair cost associated.

1996 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun Wang

AbstractThis paper examines a class of premium functionals which are (i) comonotonic additive and (ii) stochastic dominance preservative. The representation for this class is a transformation of the decumulative distribution function. It has close connections with the recent developments in economic decision theory and non-additive measure theory. Among a few elementary members of this class, the proportional hazard transform seems to stand out as being most plausible for actuaries.


Author(s):  
Guang Zou ◽  
Kian Banisoleiman ◽  
Arturo González

A challenge in marine and offshore engineering is structural integrity management (SIM) of assets such as ships, offshore structures, mooring systems, etc. Due to harsh marine environments, fatigue cracking and corrosion present persistent threats to structural integrity. SIM for such assets is complicated because of a very large number of rewelded plates and joints, for which condition inspections and maintenance are difficult and expensive tasks. Marine SIM needs to take into account uncertainty in material properties, loading characteristics, fatigue models, detection capacities of inspection methods, etc. Optimising inspection and maintenance strategies under uncertainty is therefore vital for effective SIM and cost reductions. This paper proposes a value of information (VoI) computation and Bayesian decision optimisation (BDO) approach to optimal maintenance planning of typical fatigue-prone structural systems under uncertainty. It is shown that the approach can yield optimal maintenance strategies reliably in various maintenance decision making problems or contexts, which are characterized by different cost ratios. It is also shown that there are decision making contexts where inspection information doesn’t add value, and condition based maintenance (CBM) is not cost-effective. The CBM strategy is optimal only in the decision making contexts where VoI > 0. The proposed approach overcomes the limitation of CBM strategy and highlights the importance of VoI computation (to confirm VoI > 0) before adopting inspections and CBM.


Buildings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 104
Author(s):  
Fernando A. N. Silva ◽  
João M. P. Q. Delgado ◽  
António C. Azevedo ◽  
Tahlaiti Mahfoud ◽  
Abdelhafid Khelidj ◽  
...  

Early deterioration of reinforced concrete foundations has been often reported in recent years. This process is usually characterized by an extensive mapping cracking process on concrete surfaces that results from several types of Internal Swelling Reaction (ISR). In this paper, a real case study of a tall reinforced concrete building with a severe deterioration process installed in its deep foundations is discussed. Laboratory tests were performed in concrete drilled cores extracted from a deep pile cap block 19 years after the beginning of construction. Tests to assess the compressive strength, the static and the dynamic modulus of elasticity, the gas permeability, and electron microscopy scanning to find out the primary mechanism responsible for the deterioration observed during in situ inspections. Chemical alterations of materials were observed in concrete cores, mainly due to Delayed Ettringite Formation (DEF), which significantly affected the integrity and durability of the structure. Dynamic modulus of elasticity showed to be a better indicator of damage induced by ISR in concrete than compressive strength. Procedures to strengthen the deteriorated elements using prestressing proved to be an efficient strategy to recover the structural integrity of pile caps deteriorated due to expansions due to ISR.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 1071
Author(s):  
Davide Bombarda ◽  
Giorgio Matteo Vitetta ◽  
Giovanni Ferrante

Rail tracks undergo massive stresses that can affect their structural integrity and produce rail breakage. The last phenomenon represents a serious concern for railway management authorities, since it may cause derailments and, consequently, losses of rolling stock material and lives. Therefore, the activities of track maintenance and inspection are of paramount importance. In recent years, the use of various technologies for monitoring rails and the detection of their defects has been investigated; however, despite the important progresses in this field, substantial research efforts are still required to achieve higher scanning speeds and improve the reliability of diagnostic procedures. It is expected that, in the near future, an important role in track maintenance and inspection will be played by the ultrasonic guided wave technology. In this manuscript, its use in rail track monitoring is investigated in detail; moreover, both of the main strategies investigated in the technical literature are taken into consideration. The first strategy consists of the installation of the monitoring instrumentation on board a moving test vehicle that scans the track below while running. The second strategy, instead, is based on distributing the instrumentation throughout the entire rail network, so that continuous monitoring in quasi-real-time can be obtained. In our analysis of the proposed solutions, the prototypes and the employed methods are described.


Author(s):  
Torgeir Moan

Based on relevant accident experiences with oil and gas platforms, a brief overview of structural integrity management of offshore structures is given; including an account of adequate design criteria, inspection, repair and maintenance as well as quality assurance and control of the engineering processes. The focus is on developing research based design standards for Accidental Collapse Limit States to ensure robustness or damage tolerance in view damage caused by accidental loads due to operational errors and to some extent abnormal structural damage due to fabrication errors. Moreover, it is suggested to provide robustness in cases where the structural performance is sensitive to uncertain parameters. The use of risk assessment to aid decisions in lieu of uncertainties affecting the performance of novel and existing offshore structures, is briefly addressed.


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