A data-driven approach for fatigue life of water intake risers

Water intake risers are novel concept for cooling water transport from the sea to the floating facilities. The fatigue performance is key to design of the water intake risers. In this paper, the fatigue performance of a bundle of water intake risers is investigated for the first time using full-scale field measurements in combination with a finite element model. Through this approach, a data-driven model is developed to assess the fatigue damage of water intake risers. A fatigue analysis framework is proposed to calculate the bending stress along the risers based on the measured rotations at two locations of the risers. Compared to the conventional finite element analysis, this framework provides a more accurate and time-efficient solution for fatigue estimation, which helps the structural integrity of the water intake risers over their life cycle.