Fatigue Oriented Risk Based Inspection and Structural Health Monitoring of FPSOs

Abstract: This paper provides a brief review of the methodological composition of Risk Based Inspection (RBI) and the application of the methodology for safeguarding hull integrity of offshore floating structures, with fatigue as primary degradation mechanism. The work has a distinct focus on the opportunities RBI has to offer in combination with Structural Health Monitoring. In order to provide a clear picture of the state of the art knowledge, the current practices and regulations are briefly discussed after which the RBI methodology is introduced, the differences in guidelines and applications discussed and an 8-step approach is proposed. Subsequently, the methodology is outlined as an instrument for determining the residual fatigue life and the inspection scope and –schedule and the methodological embedding within an Advisory Hull Monitoring System is discussed and proposed.