Systems and methods to visualize component health and preventive maintenance needs for subsea control subsystem components

• US 10,018,007 B2
• Filed: 01/02/2015
• Issued: 07/10/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/02/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hydril USA Distribution LLC (GE Aerospace)
• Original Assignee: Hydril USA Distribution LLC (GE Aerospace)
• Inventors: Panicker-Shah, Kalpana
• Primary Examiner(s): Toatley, Gregory J
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kay, Douglas
• Application Number:
  US14/588,564
• Publication Number:
  US 20150184505A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,285 Days
• Field of Search: 702 9, 702183, 702189, 166363
• CPC Class Codes: E21B 33/0355 Control systems, e.g. hydraulic, pneumatic, electric, acoustic, for submerged well heads
• CPC Class Codes: E21B 34/16 Control means therefor being outside the borehole control systems for submerged well heads E21B33/0355
• CPC Class Codes: E21B 41/0007 for underwater installations E21B41/005, E21B41/04, E21B41/06, E21B41/08, E21B41/10 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: E21B 44/00 Automatic control systems specially adapted for drilling operations, i.e. self-operating systems which function to carry out or modify a drilling operation without intervention of a human operator, e.g. computer-controlled drilling systems; Systems specially adapted for monitoring a plurality of drilling variables or conditions
• CPC Class Codes: E21B 47/001 for underwater installation

Abstract

Systems and methods to visualize component health and preventive maintenance needs for subsea control subsystem components are provided. Embodiments can include energizing one or more solenoids, detecting a solenoid firing event, detecting activity in blowout preventer components downchain from the solenoids, and incrementing a cycle count for the one or more solenoids and each downchain blowout preventer component activated. Embodiments can include projecting a replacement date for the solenoid or any of the downchain blowout preventer components based on the cycle count and user-defined thresholds. In embodiments, a user is provided with an interactive graphical representation of a blowout preventer including selectable blowout preventer components thereby to visualize component health and preventive maintenance needs.

Claims

1. A system to visualize component health and preventive maintenance needs for subsea control subsystem components, the system comprising:

a blowout preventer (BOP) including one or more solenoid valves operably disposed within the BOP, each of the one or more solenoid valves configured to close upon energization of a respective one or more solenoids associated with the one or more solenoid valves, the BOP further including a plurality of downchain BOP components, one or more of the plurality of downchain BOP components being activated following energization of the respective one or solenoids associated with the one or more solenoid valves, the BOP further including a pair of control pods to control downchain BOP components, the pair of control pods including an active pod and a non-active pod;

one or more pressure tranducers disposed with the BOP, operably connected to each of the plurality of downchain BOP components associated with the BOP, and configured to indicate activity of individual downchain BOP components;

one or more processors; and

tangible computer-readable medium in communication with the one or more processors and having stored therein a plurality of operational modules, each including a set of instructions that when executed cause the one or more processors to perform operations, the plurality of operational modules including;

a solenoid energization detection module responsive to the energization of the one or more solenoids and configured to detect a solenoid firing event upon energization of the one or more solenoids,

a datalogger module responsive to the solenoid energization detection module and configured to log the solenoid firing event in a datalogger,

a control pod status module configured to determine which of the pair of control pods is the active pod and which is the non-active pod,

an event detection module responsive to the datalogger module, the control pod status module, and indications obtained from one or more pressure transducers and configured to detect a type of solenoid firing event, the type of solenoid firing event including one of a dry test, a wet test, and an actual event,

a cycle count module responsive to the solenoid energization detection module and the event detection module and configured (a) to increment a cycle count for the solenoid and each of the plurality of downchain BOP components in a chain of hydraulic component activation associated with a predefined BOP function if the solenoid firing event is detected as a wet test or an actual event, and (b) to increment a cycle count for the solenoid and each of a subset of the plurality of downchain BOP components in the chain of hydraulic component activation associated with a predefined BOP function if the solenoid firing event is detected as a dry test;

a maintenance module responsive to the cycle count module and configured to provide a difference between (a) a cycle count for the one or more solenoids and a replacement cycle count for the one or more solenoids, and (b) a cycle count for any of the plurality of downchain BOP components and a replacement cycle count any of the plurality of downchain BOP components, the difference indicating to a user a number of cycles remaining before the one or more solenoids or any of the plurality of downchain BOP components should be replaced; and

an automated alert module responsive to the maintenance module and configured to automatically display an alert on one or more displays, the alert providing cycle component parameter information including one or more of a solenoid overcurrent, a solenoid undercurrent, excessive fluctuation in solenoid current, excessive pressure in the regulators, and abnormal behavior in a pressure transducer or another BOP component.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a communications network, one or more vessels, and one or more on-shore management stations, the one or more vessels including one or more shipboard computers, the one or more on-shore management stations including one or more subsea control system asset management servers, the one or more shipboard computers and the one or more subsea control system asset management servers configured to communicate with one another via the communications network thereby to permit transfer of subsea control system asset information between the one or more shipboard computers and the one or more subsea control system asset management servers, wherein the plurality of downchain BOP components including one or more of shear seal valves, sub-plates mounted (SPM) valves, multiple position locking (MPL) components, flow meters, high-temperature and high-pressure probes, transducers, ram packers, packing units, shuttle valves, and regulators.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the event detection module includes a detection algorithm responsive to pressure indications obtained by the one or more pressure transducers operably connected to the plurality of downchain BOP components.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the detection algorithm includes:

for SPM valves pressurized at a predefined first pressure, (a) detecting a dry test if pod pilot pressure is zero or below a predefined threshold and (b) detecting a wet test or an actual event in the alternative;

for SPM valves pressurized at a predefined second pressure higher than the predefined first pressure, (a) detecting a dry test if the one or more pressure transducers read zero and (b) detecting a wet test or actual event in the alternative; and

for all other downchain BOP components, (a) detecting a dry test if the pod pressure is zero or below a predefined threshold and (b) detecting a wet test or an actual event in the alternative.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the event detection module includes a detection algorithm responsive to changes in a flowmeter value.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein the cycle count module is further responsive to the control pod status module, the cycle count module being further configured to increment a cycle count for the one or more solenoids and every downchain BOP component in a hydraulic chain down to and including the ram packer or packing units for the active pod, and to increment a cycle count for the one or more solenoids and every downchain BOP component in a hydraulic chain down to and including the SPM valves for the non-active pod.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the maintenance module is further configured to provide a projected replacement date for each of the one or more solenoids and the plurality of downchain BOP components, each projected replacement date calculated using one or more of average historical usage, anticipated usage based on time of year, and anticipated usage based on type of activity being performed on the well.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the plurality of modules further includes a dashboard module responsive to the maintenance module and configured to provide for display of a plurality of dashboard pages on one or more displays, the plurality of dashboard pages providing a graphical representation of BOP activity including a condition status for each of the one or more solenoids and the downchain BOP components and pressure indications from the one or more pressure transducers.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the maintenance module is further configured to generate reports of suggested downchain BOP components to replace responsive to user-defined thresholds for each of the downchain BOP components.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the BOP comprises a first BOP of a plurality of BOPs, the plurality of modules further including a fleet analytics module configured to provide a side-by-side comparison of like data collected by each of the one or more vessels, each of the one or more vessels configured to collect solenoid firing event data and downchain BOP component activity data from the plurality of BOPs.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the alert further provides cycle count information.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the cycle count information comprises one or more of the cycle count of the one or more solenoids or any of the downchain BOP components reaching a predefined threshold, the cycle count of the one or more solenoids or any of the downchain BOP components coming within a predefined number of a predefined threshold, the projected replacement date for one or more solenoids or any of the downchain BOP components being reached, and the projected replacement date for the one or more solenoids or any of the downchain BOP components being a predefined number of days in the future.

13. A method to visualize component health and preventive maintenance needs for subsea control subsystem components, the method comprising:

providing one or more solenoid valves within a blowout preventer (BOP), the one or more solenoid valves configured to close upon energization of a respective one or more solenoids associated with the one or more solenoid valves;

providing one or more pressure transducers operably connected to a plurality of downchain BOP components, one or more of the plurality of downchain BOP components configured to activate following energization of the respective one or more solenoids associated with the one or more solenoids valves, the one or more pressure transducers configured to indicate activity of individual downchain BOP components;

detecting a solenoid firing event responsive to energization of the one or more solenoids;

logging the solenoid firing event in a datalogger;

determining which of a pair of control pods is an active pod and which is a non-active pod;

detecting whether the solenoid firing event represents a dry test, a wet test, or an actual event responsive to indications obtained from one or more pressure transducers;

incrementing a cycle count for the one or more solenoids and each of the plurality of downchain BOP components in a chain of hydraulic component activation associated with a predefined BOP function if the solenoid firing event is detected as a wet test or an actual event;

incrementing a cycle count for the one or more solenoids and each of a subset of the plurality of downchain BOP components in the chain of hydraulic component activation associated with a predefined BOP function if the solenoid firing event is detected as a dry test;

providing a difference between a cycle count for the one or more solenoids and a predefined replacement cycle count for the one or more solenoids;

providing a difference between a cycle count for any of the plurality of downchain BOP components and a predefined replacement cycle count for any of the plurality of downchain BOP components, the differences indicating to a user a number of cycles remaining before the one or more solenoids or any of the plurality of downchain BOP components should be replaced; and

automatically displaying an alert on one or more displays, the alert providing cycle component parameter information including one or more of a solenoid overcurrent, a solenoid undercurrent, excessive fluctuation in solenoid current, excessive pressure in the regulators, and abnormal behavior in a pressure transducer or another BOP component.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising the step of transferring subsea control system asset information over a communications network between one or more shipboard computers located on one or more vessels and one or more subsea control system asset management servers located at one or more on-shore management stations, wherein the plurality of downchain BOP components include one or more of shear seal valves, sub-plate mounted (SPM) valves, multiple position locking (MPL) components, flow meters, high-temperature and high-pressure probes, transducers, ram packers, packing units, shuttle valves, and regulators.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein detecting whether a solenoid firing event is a wet test, a dry test, or an actual event is responsive to pressure indications obtained from the one or more pressure transducers operably connected to the plurality of downchain BOP components.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein detecting whether a solenoid firing event is a wet test, a dry test, or an actual event is responsive to changes in a flowmeter value.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

for the active pod, incrementing a cycle count for the one or more solenoids and every downchain BOP component in a hydraulic chain down to and including the ram packer or packing units; and

for the non-active pod, incrementing a cycle count for the one or more solenoids and every downchain BOP component in a hydraulic chain down to and including the SPM valves.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising providing a projected replacement date for each of the one or more solenoids and the plurality of downchain BOP components, each projected replacement date calculated using one or more of average historical usage, anticipated usage based on time of year, and anticipated usage based on type of activity being performed on the well.