Review of Fire-Related Damage of Steel Offshore Structures

AMRAN AYOB; Zulkipli Henry

doi:10.54552/v82i2.127

Amran bin Ayob UTM
Zulkipli Henry UTM

Keywords: fixed offshore structures, hydrocarbon fire, hotspots, metallography tests, structural integrity assessment

Abstract

Fixed offshore structures are continuously exposed to risk of hydrocarbon fire or cellulosic fire. Hydrocarbon fire generally causes more detrimental effect than cellulosic fire because the rapid increment of temperature gives little response time for people to evacuate the location or to put off the fire. Metallography tests have demonstrated that steel structures continuously exposed to temperature escalation from fires will lose their mechanical properties such as yield strength, tensile strength, toughness, hardenability and elastic modulus. Thus, to understand the structural response during fire, structural integrity assessment with revised steel mechanical properties is advised to be performed. The outcome of the analysis helps to identify the hotspots of the steel structures due to the fire and allow the investigation team to further perform detailed inspection and proposed structural repair to reinstate the integrity of the steel structures.

Author Biographies

Amran bin Ayob, UTM

Dr Amran was an Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Mechanics and Design at UTM Johor. Dr Amran graduated with BSc from University of Leeds, MSc from University of Strathclyde and PhD from University of Liverpool. He has published more than 70 Scopus-indexed papers covering topics such as buckling failure of domes, load interaction of pressurized components and optimization of composite materials. He was invited as Visiting Researcher at Korea University, Tohoku University, Hiroshima University and Saitama University between 2011 and 2015, mainly to study wind and seismic effects on structures. Dr Amran has served as a member of the Malaysian Standards Technical Committee on Boiler and Pressure Vessel and is a member of the Malaysian Institution of Engineers and ASEAN Engineers.

Zulkipli Henry, UTM

Dr Zulkipli graduated with BSc and MSc from Clarkson University, New York. He obtained his PhD from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor. His MSc Thesis was on Surface Bonding Masonry Wall which evaluates the effect of fiber reinforced mortar on the masonry wall with the objective to improve the strength and ductility of masonry wall. His PhD research on Modified Reliability Reassessment of Fixed Offshore Structures for Malaysian Water was to establish the methodology to calculate wave height that contributes to structural collapse of fixed offshore platform and to propose improvement in the non-linear progressive collapse analysis of fixed offshore structure methodology by including the contribution of wave-in-deck. Dr Zulkipli is a member of the Malaysian Institution of Engineers and registered Professional Engineer with Board of Engineers Malaysia.