Structural Integrity Management (Offshore Structures)

Structural integrity can be defined as the ability of an asset to perform its required function effectively and efficiently, in accordance with the requirements and assumptions made in design, while protecting health, safety, and the environment.

Structural integrity management (SIM) is the means of demonstrating that the people, company policies/procedures, systems, processes, and resources that deliver structural integrity are in place and will perform when required over the whole life cycle of the asset.

Most of the facilities in the oil and gas sector are “mature assets on mature fields,”. Therefore, Structural integrity management (SIM) is one of the main pillars of Asset Integrity Management (AIM) in the oil and gas sector to avoid any catastrophic accident. SIM focuses on ensuring the asset’s structural integrity and its continuous fitness-for-purpose, allowing owners to achieve their business objectives flexibly and to ensure operations sustainability. SIM provides the process for understanding the effects of deterioration, damage, changes in loading, and accidental overloading. Therefore, there is a great need for applying SIM to help operators decrease failures, costs and downtime in any hydrocarbon process.