Acoustic emission monitoring of corrosion-fatigue damage evolution in submerged steel structures: a global parametric analysis

Floating offshore production units are typically anchored to the seabed with mooring chains. Structural degradation of mooring chain steel can lead to premature failure with large environmental and financial consequences. In the oceanic environment, corrosion and fatigue are the dominant failure modes for mooring chains. These damage mechanisms...

In-situ Non-destructive Stiffness Assessment of FRC Materials

Fiber Reinforced Composite (FRC) materials are gaining great popularity in marine structures because of their excellent strength-to-weight ratio, low density, and provided freedom in the design process. However, the use of FRC materials comes along with relatively large uncertainties in material properties and structural integrity after...

Dynamic response reconstruction of an FRC blade with embedded piezoelectric sensors

Fiber-reinforced composite (FRC) marine propellers potentially outperform metallic propellers in terms of efficiency and underwater radiated noise (URN) by hydro-elastic tailoring of the blades. Several methods can assess the extent of these potentials. Research shows that embedded sensing methods can be used in dynamic measurements of...

Modelling of a Flexible Inflatable Floater: Analysis of the stiffness behaviour of a drop-stitch panel for offshore floating photovoltaics

For floating photovoltaic systems, an uncommon type of offshore structure is considered, which is very flexible and deforms with the motion of the waves. In this research, the bending characteristics of a drop-stitch floater is analysed, which is an inflatable panel. By inflating the drop-stitch floater to a low air pressure, it obtains a...

Feasibility evaluation for non-contact ultrasonic inspection of mooring chains through marine growth

Mooring chains are subject to dynamic loads and corrosion. A challenging aspect in assessing the integrity of mooring chains is the presence of marine growth. Marine growth removal is expensive, environmentally damaging, and includes the risk of restarting corrosion process. The focus of this research is on the feasibility of mooring chains...