Safety and Reliability of Offshore Energy Facilities

A special issue of Journal of Marine Science and Engineering (ISSN 2077-1312). This special issue belongs to the section "Ocean Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (29 February 2024) | Viewed by 5603

Special Issue Editors

Institute for Research in Civil and Mechanical Engineering (GeM, CNRS UMR 6183), Sea and Littoral Research Institute (IUML, CNRS FR 3473), Université de Nantes, Centrale Nantes, 2 rue de la Houssinière BP 92208, 44322 Nantes, France
Interests: macrofouling of structures; probabilistic modelling of marine and coastal material degradation processes; structural reliability of offshore structures; inspection maintenance and repair of offshore and coastal structures
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department of Civil Engineering, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark
Interests: structural reliability; operation and maintenance; probabilistic design; offshore structures; risk analysis; wind turbines
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University College Dublin, 4 Dublin, Ireland
Interests: vibration; energy harvesting; structural health monitoring and control; smart materials and structures; dynamical systems; risk quantification and reliability analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Our societies have been facing major consequences of climate change and, over the course of the last 30 years, though especially since 2022, major energy crises have highlighted that clean and new power plants should be developed. The objective of such an initiative is to ensure a production level at a lower cost. Offshore energy facilities, which have been developed since the 1990s, are one the most promising solutions to meet these challenges.

The marine environment is complex and offers harsh environmental conditions for these facilities.  Moreover, its effect on infrastructures and systems is hard to model. As a consequence, engineering must account for uncertainties and assess the reliability of these facilities. This Special Issue aims to bring together scientists, research engineers and decision-makers in the fields of system safety of complex engineering systems, structural health monitoring, cost/benefit assessment, and risk management in order to present and discuss innovative methodologies and practical applications related to reliability of offshore energy facilities. Scientific methodologies, theoretical issues and practical case studies are expected to cover the entire range of applications, from the academic to the industrial, including electro-mechanical and civil engineering applications.

There are many technical issues where risk, reliability and safety are involved: evaluation of uncertain resources (wind, wave, currents), material reliability, complex system reliability, electrical grid optimization, collision with ships, governance of risk in a multi-usage area (fishing, tourism, maritime transport, European defense).

Topics include (but are not limited to):

  • Reliability-based design and optimization (including structural, material and electro-mechanical issues);
  • Service lifetime extension;
  • Risks during sea operations and during service lifetime in a multi-usage area;
  • Robustness quantification of complex systems;
  • Electrical grid reliability and optimization and asset management;
  • Life-cycle assessment and optimization;
  • Structural and mechanical reliability, including electro-mechanical systems;
  • Probabilistic degradation models of materials for energy offshore facilities;
  • Added value of structural health monitoring and inspection, maintenance and repair optimization;
  • Risk assessment and decision theory;
  • Failure consequences on human lives, activities and environmental damage;
  • Industrial case studies in marine renewable energy.

This Special Issue also aims at crossing energy sectors:

  • Offshore wind turbines, both bottom-fixed and floating;
  • Offshore substations;
  • Offshore tide energy converters;
  • Wave energy converters;
  • Solar energy converters;
  • H2 offshore production plants;
  • Mixed systems;

Prof. Dr. Franck Schoefs
Prof. Dr. Bernt J. Leira
Prof. Dr. John Dalsgaard Sørensen
Dr. Vikram Pakrashi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 4444 KiB  
Article
Unified System Analysis for Time-Variant Reliability of a Floating Offshore Substation
by Franck Schoefs, Mestapha Oumouni, Morteza Ahmadivala, Neil Luxcey, Florian Dupriez-Robin and Patrick Guerin
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2023, 11(10), 1924; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse11101924 - 05 Oct 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 871
Abstract
Offshore wind is planned to become the first source of energy by 2050. That requires installing turbines in deeper seas. It is shown that only floating wind turbines will allow dealing with this challenge while keeping a reasonable cost of energy production and [...] Read more.
Offshore wind is planned to become the first source of energy by 2050. That requires installing turbines in deeper seas. It is shown that only floating wind turbines will allow dealing with this challenge while keeping a reasonable cost of energy production and transport according to the levelized cost of electricity. A Floating Offshore Substation will be needed in many sites. This technology is still at a low technology readiness level. This paper aims to analyze the system reliability of such a structure for which the failure rates of structural components such as mooring lines and dynamic power cables are close to the ones of electro-technical systems. Consequently, only a system reliability assessment of the floating offshore substation will allow accurately quantifying its availability and the most sensitive components. Usually, structural reliability aims at quantifying the probability of failures, while electro-technical reliability relies on feedback and observed failure rates. The paper first unifies these two concepts in a single formulation and then evaluates the system’s reliability and availability. This methodology is illustrated in a study case localized in the French coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, where the effect of several mooring and substation designs on the system reliability is compared. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Safety and Reliability of Offshore Energy Facilities)
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18 pages, 4217 KiB  
Article
Cost–Benefit Assessment of Offshore Structures Considering Structural Deterioration
by Gerardo Varela and Dante Tolentino
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2023, 11(7), 1348; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse11071348 - 01 Jul 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1140
Abstract
Offshore facilities are essential infrastructure systems for many nations because their partial or total interruption causes diverse consequences in the economic, political, environmental, and social sectors. With the aim to preserve such structures at acceptable reliability levels, an approach is proposed to calculate [...] Read more.
Offshore facilities are essential infrastructure systems for many nations because their partial or total interruption causes diverse consequences in the economic, political, environmental, and social sectors. With the aim to preserve such structures at acceptable reliability levels, an approach is proposed to calculate the optimal instant of time in which inspection and maintenance works can be performed. The optimal time instant is estimated following the cost benefit criterion (CB) considering the cost of inspection, repair and failure. The inspection cost is given by an inspection quality, while fatigue crack size at different critical joints is calculated to estimate repair costs. In this paper, the concept of demand exceedance rates is introduced to evaluate the failure cost. Uncertainties related to both storm and operational waves are considered. The optimal time instant is associated with the lowest cost of inspection, repair and failure. For this purpose, the approach is exemplified in an offshore jacket structure situated in the Gulf of Mexico. The optimal instant of time corresponds to 6 years after the offshore jacket installation. If maintenance actions are implemented every six years during the lifespan of the system, an economic reduction of 58% is achieved, compared to the case in which no inspection and maintenance works are performed over time. The approach helps decision-makers ensure the best use of economic resources. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Safety and Reliability of Offshore Energy Facilities)
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29 pages, 10276 KiB  
Article
Reliability Analysis of the Deep-Sea Horizontal Clamp Connector Based on Multi-Source Information from an Engineering Background
by Weifeng Liu, Feihong Yun, Gang Wang, Liquan Wang and Shaoming Yao
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2023, 11(5), 986; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse11050986 - 06 May 2023
Viewed by 1350
Abstract
As a key piece of equipment in underwater production system, a reliability study of deep-sea connectors has important theoretical significance and engineering value for increasing fault-free operation time, improving engineering safety, and reducing maintenance costs. However, the diverse failure modes of connectors and [...] Read more.
As a key piece of equipment in underwater production system, a reliability study of deep-sea connectors has important theoretical significance and engineering value for increasing fault-free operation time, improving engineering safety, and reducing maintenance costs. However, the diverse failure modes of connectors and the lack of high-quality and credible reliability data can lead to biased analysis outcomes. To tackle this problem, this study aims to establish a reliability model for deep-sea horizontal clamp connectors. Based on the actual engineering background, a fault tree model for deep-sea horizontal clamp connectors is developed, and the distribution types of bottom events are analyzed concerning the failure mechanism. To enhance the model’s credibility, a multi-source information approach is employed, combining prior product information, expert experience, and design information to quantitatively solve the reliability probability of the connector. The expert experience is quantified using the fuzzy quantitative analysis method, while the design information is estimated by developing a corrosion prediction model combined with grey theory. Thus, the reliability assessment of deep-sea horizontal clamp connectors is completed. Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) is performed on the improved connectors, and the closed-loop work of reliability analysis is completed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Safety and Reliability of Offshore Energy Facilities)
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