Mar. 17 2011

Mar. 17 2011

Greek Section Technical Meeting of March 17, 2011

‘‘A fiber optic health monitoring and fatigue life
management system for ships and vessels’’

Report by P. Lalangas

The Greek Section held its sixth technical meeting for the 2010-2011 season on
March 17, during which Dr. Philos. Geir S. Sagvolden, Director of Technology of
Light Structures AS and Dr.Ing. Alf Egil Jensen of FiReCo AS, Norway, presented
the subject topic.
Fiber optic structural monitoring systems are an increasingly popular tool for ship hull
fatigue life management and structural monitoring. These systems have also found
a range of applications outside hull monitoring due to the excellent performance of
fiber optic sensor and communication systems in harsh environments. When low
noise strain measurements are coupled with structural response models, parameters
such as forces, moments, displacements, and structural utilization can be extracted.
Furthermore, forecasts of extreme observations based on continuous measurements
and statistical analysis of these parameters are being used to ensure that operation
is kept within operational envelopes. An introduction of the measurement and
processing techniques and what they offer were given, together with examples of
different types of systems for various types of ships and vessels. A newly developed
fatigue recorder module was also presented.
Many application examples on commercial ships were shown, which included
VLLCs, FPSOs, containerships and LNGs. For the latter monitors were installed
inside the LNG tanks in order to measure the pressures and forces exerted by the
sloshing liquid cargo. Also a design verification was shown on a 60 kts GRP naval
vessel.
As usually a reception took place after the meeting where all participants had a chance
to ask more questions to the authors and enjoy the delicious hors d’oeuvres and wines.
The entire power point presentation can be found on the link given on this site.




( from L to R ):  N. Dionissopoulos, Sub. EC Member; G. Grigoropoulos, Ex Chair & Ex. Int. Reg VP;
J. Taby, Gen, Man. FiReCo ; A. Jensen, Author ; G. Sagvolden, Author; K. Maounis, Secr / Treasurer;
P. Lalangas, Chair.



the presentation can be found, following the link below