| Topic:
The Enterprise Drilling Riser Failure
In 2003, the drilling
riser on the Transocean drilling vessel Discoverer Enterprise failed
catastrophically, resulting in a complete separation failure of the riser
with the lower half of the riser falling to the ocean floor in the Gulf of
Mexico (GOM).
The
riser failure was due to brittle fracture of low alloy inserts that,
together with their associated bolts, coupled individual sections of the
riser together. This presentation will summarize the massive effort that
went into verifying the root cause for the riser failure, including
extensive metallurgical testing and analysis, laboratory simulation testing,
mechanical analysis of the riser system, the potential influence of the
thermal sprayed aluminum (TSA) coating designed as a cathodic protection
system, riser fastener installation and lubrication, plus environmental
influences. The presentation will include lessons learned and changes made
to prevent future, similar failures.
| Speaker:
Jim Burk, BP
Jim
Burke is a Metallurgist with BP Americas. Jim Was BP's primary technical
representative in the root cause investigation regarding failure of the
Enterprise drilling riser insert failures that led to a complete separation
failure of the drilling riser.
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