Performance analysis for subsea blind shear ram preventers subject to testing strategies

Shengnan Wu, Laibin Zhang, Anne Barros, Wenpei Zheng and Yiliu Liu

Reliability Engineering and System Safety, 2018, vol. 169, issue C, 281-298

Abstract: In a subsea blowout preventer system, a subsea blind shear ram preventer (BSRP) plays as a crucial safety barrier by cutting off the drill pipe and sealing the wellhead to prevent serious accidents. Testing and repairs of BSRPs are the main issues in operation and maintenance activities. It is important to assess BSRPs unavailability during proof and partial testing phases in order to ensure their safety functions. This paper presents a newly state-based approach for unavailability analysis by incorporating testing activities of BSRPs into multiphase Markov process. In the approach, states waiting for repair are taken into consideration. Analytical formulas for evaluation of time-dependent unavailability and average unavailability for BSRPs are developed. In addition, the non-periodic characteristics and effects of degradation are also taken into account in proof testing. The effects of testing errors and postponed repairs on the tendency of unavailability in partial testing phases are checked in the proposed models. Performance analyses for BSRPs configurations, scenarios and cases considered in the paper are carried out to demonstrate the application of the proposed models. Monte Carlo models for both proof and partial testing are developed and simulated. Different comparisons are performed for validation of the set of the derived formulations.

Keywords: Subsea blind shear ram preventer; Unavailability analysis; Multiphase Markov process; Testing strategies; Monte Carlo models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:reensy:v:169:y:2018:i:c:p:281-298

DOI: 10.1016/j.ress.2017.08.022

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