FLEXIBLE PIPE INTEGRITY MANAGEMENT

摘要

At present, flexible pipes are used worldwide to conduct several fluids within the offshore oil production industry. These flexible pipes are complex composite structures made up of several plastic and steel layers. They are intended to work for a long period of time, something around 20 years. Although the flexible pipes behavior is satisfactory in most applications, they are susceptible to simple damages, for example on the external sheath, which much reduces their service life. The offshore inspection activities are extremely expensive and, given that, these activities need to be very well oriented in order to be effective. This paper describes the Risk Based Inspection Methodology, which is a helpful applicable tool in the integrity management of several flexible pipe systems, allowing to concentrate the efforts where they are really needed. This methodology may be used by the oil companies to reduce overall costs and enhance safety and integrity of the production systems.