Failure paths identification and damage tolerance definition for marine platforms in the Bay of Campeche

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Failure paths identification and damage tolerance definition for marine platforms in the Bay of Campeche

Leon, D. de / Florentino, S. / Martinez, G.

Offshore Marine Platforms have been built in the Bay of Campeche since the 60's. Managers of those facilities have shown a strong interest on keeping the production activities at some of the structures that are close to its lifetime. As a consequence, there is now an important concern about the effect of aging on the structural integrity of these platforms as exposed to environmental loading. A probabilistic approach was developed in order to help to identify the sequence of nodes and level of damage that may be tolerated by the platform before its overall safety is compromised. The referred procedure allows the safety assessment against fatigue and involves the combination of Structural Reliability and Fracture Mechanics concepts. The formulation is applied to the platforms AKAL-N and NOHOCH-B, both located in the Bay of Campeche. Because of the large volume of oil and gas production at risk, a careful and detailed evaluation of these platforms is required. The results show that the structural redundancy degree plays an important role to define the damage level that the platform may tolerate before reaching the minimum limit of the reliability index recommended for its category.