Philosophy of Monitoring, Inspection, and Repair for Fixed Offshore Platforms

The coming energy crisis will require difficult choices--between development vs. stagflation, between various energy sources having different costs and risks, and between allocating our finite resources towards maintaining sufficient energy supply vs. further reductions in pollution in risk. The philosophy of making rational trade-offs between cost and risk has previously been applied in the selection of design criteria for storm loads, earthquakes, and fatigue. This paper will extend its application to rational decisionmaking in areas of structural monitoring, inspection, and repair. The role of structural redundancy is discussed, along with current inspection practices and monitoring development.