Composite Riser Experience and Design Guidance presented in this report captures the latest state of the art advances and experience in the academia as well as in industry for the design and manufacturing of production risers with continuous fiber reinforced polymer matrix composites for deepwater top tension risers. The contents have been discussed and revised based on the feedback of a team of industrial composite experts.
Composite materials, especially glass-epoxy and carbon-epoxy composites, have drawn substantial attention from the offshore industry primarily due to their high specific strength as well as the tailorability of strength and stiffness, thermal conductivity, damping properties. Integrated experimental and computational approaches are mature and feasible for both prototype designs as well as for the material/structural characterization necessary to develop design allowables. On the other hand, the low-cost and reliable manufacturing techniques that can produce defect free components with simple and robust attachments need further development. At present, the principal barrier is the lack of databases commensurate with field trials that can be utilized with confidence for design life. Still the long term advantages of composites are worth the investment. Metrics for successful transition firmly reside in the development of field databases, robust terminations, standards, and flexibility in selecting optimum production/exploration platforms to take advantage of composites. The development of industry and regulatory acceptable design standards can greatly facilitate the approval process.
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