Stress sensor technology

Stress sensor technology under the OTC spotlight

A new technology offering high-precision monitoring and early warning of problems in deepwater subsea structures has been awarded a Spotlight on New Technology Award by the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC). 2H Offshore’s INTEGRIstick Dynamic Curvature Sensor is one of 14 recipients of OTC’s Spotlight Award, which honors innovative technologies that provide significant benefits to offshore E&P.
The INTEGRIstick is used to monitor dynamic subsea structures where bending is a key source of fatigue. The device incorporates several strain gauges housed in a corrosion-resistant metal housing that straps to the outside diameter of a riser pipe over the corrosion and insulation coatings. The gauges measure biplanar curvature changes of subsea structures to a resolution of 1 micro-strain, creep-free.



The INTEGRIstick (top) is fitted in a corrosion-resistant metal housing (bottom) and strapped to the pipe wall for direct contact and measurement.

The device can capture the smallest bending moments of a structure during the field’s life and provides information on how the structure reacts to harsh environmental conditions. The company states that this capability is essential for measuring response to day-to-day current profiles and waves that contribute to damage accumulation.
The low-power system can be used as a battery-powered unit or permanent online system and can be deployed by a diver or a remotely operated vehicle to water depths of 3000 m.
The product’s development was driven by the lack of reliable subsea strain monitoring solutions in the marketplace. The company says that use of this tool allows for the detection of problems before they become costly failures, potentially saving millions of dollars in operational downtime.
The INTEGRIstick received the Spotlight Award by successfully meeting several criteria: the technology is less than two years old; it is innovative and capable of providing significant, measureable improvements to the offshore industry; it has been proven through either full-scale application or prototype testing; and it is of broad interest to the industry.
“It is an honor for us to be receiving such a prestigious award,” said Stephen Hatton, Principal Director of 2H Offshore, in a statement announcing the award. “Working closely with Chevron we have integrated multiple INTEGRIstick sensors into a comprehensive online riser monitoring system installed on the production riser of Chevron’s Tahiti platform in the Gulf of Mexico,” he continued. “The results from this will provide Chevron with critical performance data, a key input to future integrity management programs.”