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Monitoring risers and conductors on a jack-up

Thursday, September 3, 2015

Pulse Monitoring of the UK recently installed a riser monitoring system on a jack up drilling rig in the North Sea, in a 9 month project to monitor riser stresses.

Pulse Monitoring is a manufacturer of riser, wellhead and conductor monitoring systems.

The drilling was being made in 91m water depth in a harsh environment. The drilling company was was concerned about the fatigue loading that the riser and wellhead would experience.

Pulse Monitoring installed an online monitoring system to ensure the integrity of the riser and conductor during the drilling.

The system provided accurate real time data to the drilling team on the motion and forces being experienced by the drilling and riser system.

Factors being monitored included wave height, riser tension, tensioner stroke (the system to automatically keep the riser in tension as the rig moves up and down), and riser fatigue damage.

The drilling team was able to understand the effect of drilling on equipment fatigue life and make informed decisions on how to remain within the optimum operating window, allowing safe all-year operations.

The data was also sent back to shore onshore engineering team.

Sensors

Pulse Monitoring installed its special "INTEGRIPODS". This is a special unit which includes a motion sensor and data logger, and all necessary electronics, batteries and sensors, enclosed in a pressure rated and corrosion resistant casing.

The INTEGRIpod can store the data for later retrieval, or communicate it wirelessly (using acoustic connections, if it is subsea), or communicate by cable.

Some INTEGRIpods are fitted with vibration monitoring (for risers, pipelines and subsea jumpers), monition monitoring (for subsea structures after instlalation), inclination measurement (for drilling risers) and motion and tension monitoring for mooring lines.

On this project, topside INTEGRIpod measurements were taken of rig motion and upper riser pressure, and subsea INTEGRIpods took readings of the lower flex joint.

The sensors just underneath the platform were wave radar, measuring wave height, and ADCP (Acoustic Doppler current profiler), measuring water currents.

There were also pressure sensors, measuring the tension in the hydraulic tensioner system.

All of the data was gathered together and interpreted using Pulse Monitoring's "DrillASSURE" software, which presents data on riser tension, tensioner stroke, wave height and riser fatigue damage.

Associated Companies
» Pulse Structural Monitoring

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