Total Systems Engineering for Offshore and Marine Operations

With more than 40 years of experience in offshore and marine technologies, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) offers research, design, development, prototype construction, testing, and field services. Expertise includes the design and analysis of offshore equipment, construction of prototype systems including manned and unmanned vehicles, and development and testing of offshore equipment to client requirements or international codes. The Institute’s international clientele includes the offshore oil and gas industries, the U.S. Navy, and national and international organizations.

SwRI engineers, scientists, and skilled technical staff are problem solvers. Many are internationally recognized experts in their fields and share their expertise through technical publications, training courses, and participation in standards development organizations such as ASME and API.

The Institute’s more than 1.5 million square feet of combined laboratory and office facilities, augmented by outdoor test areas, are served by a network of computerized data acquisition and analysis equipment. Programs often involve design, analysis, and experimental or numerical modeling to achieve optimum results.

The Institute’s facilities and staff are available to solve complex and challenging problems in offshore or marine structures, components, or equipment.

SwRI converted this deck decompression chamber from a double-lock to a triple-lock configuration and, through analysis, upgraded its rating from 900 feet of salt water (FSW) to 1,200 FSW.

Systems Design and Engineering

Institute engineers conduct conceptual studies, perform detailed hardware design, and execute complex, multidisciplinary systems engineering programs.

Services include:

• Systems concept
• Design and development
• Remedial design
• Computer-aided design

Using computer analysis techniques, the Institute conducted conceptual studies of a new generation of special operations submarines.

Codes utilized in design include:

• American Bureau of Shipping (ABS)
• American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
• U.S. Coast Guard
• Det Norske Veritas
• American Welding Society (AWS)
• American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
• American Petroleum Institute (API)
• Military Specifications

Structural Analysis

While solving a diversity of offshore engineering problems, SwRI has added to its expertise in a variety of analytical techniques and numerical procedures.

A full range of applied mechanical services are offered, assuring that the most effective analysis methods are applied to specific problems. Static analysis applications include:

• Submersible hulls/penetrations
• Offshore structures

Fatigue and fracture analysis methods include:

• Failure mode prediction
• Material selection
• Crack propagation analysis
• Residual stress analysis
• Fracture mechanics

Fabrication

The Institute is expert in fabricating high-quality structural components of moderate to large sizes. The fabrication of large, precision components allows us to provide turnkey system development services on high-technology hardware.

As a result of the many and varied fabrication programs conducted at SwRI, staff members have more experience in welding and joining high strength-low alloy (HSLA) steels than any company other than the major ship-builders. Welding capabilities cover the range of high-strength ferrous and nonferrous alloys (including titanium), weld procedure development, and welded structure failure analysis.

Institute quality control systems comply with the rules and regulations of:

• MIL-C-45208
• ABS
• ASME (Section VIII, Divisions 1 and 2)
• ANSI B 31.1 power piping
• Det Norske Veritas
• Lloyds
• AWS
• U.S. Navy (NAVFAC)
• PVHO (Pressure Vessels for Human Occupancy)
• U.S. Coast Guard
• ASNT TC-1A (Level 3 in all NDE disciplines)

SwRI built the Kokanee submarine, roughly 100 feet long and 10 feet in diameter, to simulate the acoustic and hydrodynamic characteristics of the Seawolf Class attack submarine. The largest unmanned sub in the world, all its structures, foundations, and control panels were designed and fabricated at SwRI.

Deep Ocean Simulation

A variety of deep ocean simulators, including internal pressure vessels up to 90 inches in diameter, are located in SwRI laboratories. These vessels operate at horizontal, vertical, or intermediate angles. All chambers are equipped with instrumentation and power penetrators, and high-speed or still photography is available in many of them.

Using SwRI-designed load cells, staff members test the thrust of this mine neutralization vehicle’s propulsion system.

A collapse test of a pipe is conducted in SwRI’s 10-inch diameter, 20,000-psig deep ocean simulator.

Structural Test and Evaluation

Since 1958, the Institute has used special instrumentation to test offshore structures. Large-scale, full-scale, and in situ testing capabilities include high-load, high-elongation, static, and dynamic tests, using a variety of instrumentation. Facilities include both open and closed loop load and displacement control systems. SwRI testing capabilities include:

• Stress analysis
• Fatigue and fracture
• Residual stress
• High-pressure, high-load capacity
• Corrosion in sour gas environments
• Large, precision models on a special test frame

SwRI evaluated the ability of an offshore platform to withstand storms. For this program, the staff conducted six large model tests, six K-joint tests, and six column tests using 2,000 channels of strain and displacement instrumentation. The Institute built and tested the models in four months.

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