Sonardyne Tasks BMT for Reliability Assurance Assessment
BMT Reliability Consultants Ltd has completed a contract with Sonardyne International Ltd, UK to provide a detailed reliability assurance assessment as part of the ongoing development of Sonardyne’s secure, acoustically-commanded Wideband BOP (Blow-Out Preventor) control system. In the event of loss of normal communications with a BOP stack, Sonardyne’s acoustic control system is used to execute emergency shutdown and riser disconnect procedures.
With systems installed offshore in Brazil, West Africa and the Gulf of Mexico, an excellent track record for reliable operation has already been established. This project saw BMT carry out a reliability assessment and complementary electronic stress analysis to ensure that all related components were operating in a manner that maximises the operational reliability and performance of the BOP control system design. A design audit was also undertaken in order to verify that all known electronic and mechanical reliability risks had been reviewed and sufficiently mitigated.BMT Reliability Consultants also provided input to discussions to determine the potential long term impact of recent changes to the size and geometry of integrated circuits and of using new electronic component technologies with less than five years commercial track record.
BMT Reliability Consultants’ Managing Director, Andrew Cooper explains: “This critical wireless control system helps the offshore drilling industry to reduce risk in the event of a BOP control failure. We are well placed to support organisations such as Sonardyne in their drive towards ensuring that the exceptionally high reliability demanded by deep water projects can be achieved. Our approach focuses attention on those aspects of the design that have the highest reliability risk and therefore the biggest reward for successful reliability improvement.”