Current and Future Tendency of Monitoring Technology for Integrity Assessment and Life Extension of the Hull Structure of Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) Vessel

This paper critically reviewed commercially available hull stress monitoring systems (HSM) and summarized notations for vessels with hull stress monitoring systems from major classification societies. The authors recommended that, for every FPSO vessel, at least one HSM should be equipped in compliance with regulation from the International Maritime Organization. Additionally, sixteen types of sensing technologies were identified for monitoring of FPSO Vessel. Depending on the technology matureness and readiness for application in marine structures, they were categorized into three groups: Proven, Un-Proven and State-of-the-art technology. Furthermore, challenges associated with FPSO hull monitoring including Sensor Systems, Communication and Data Analysis techniques were examined. It is concluded that multiple sensing technologies should be systematically combined to provide more accurate information. Based on these discussions, a feasible solution that integrates proper wireless sensor network technology and Bayesian Network modeling was proposed as the future direction of FPSO hull monitoring system.