Testing
Our in-house testing, research and development establishments focus on giving us the enviable ability to keep the majority of our development processes within the confines of our own facilties. We also undertake extensive external R&D programmes with external testing houses. Given the numerous considerations to be made when evaluating the suitability of a design and material selections, we carry out a number of international testing programmes to ensure that the most appropriate solution is chosen for any given application.
Our VIV suppression systems are tested both within our in-house facilities and independently at a variety of research establishments and is the only system proved capable of withstanding installation loads over a stinger due to the resilience of the selected polyurethane.
We have conducted tank testing of our VIV suppression systems to verify strake heights and pitch. The remaining ongoing testing is linked to our continual improvement programme of strake design. This ensures that strake geometry not only meets the environmental criteria for VIV suppression but is also vessel friendly. This has involved research into differing vessel installation spreads for pipelay such as "J-Lay" or "S-Lay" techniques and to design and build test rigs that replicate as close as possible the loadings imparted during lay operations from the stinger roller boxes.
We developed an in-house testing facility which simulates up to 100 tonne loadings which could potentially be imparted during "S-Lay" operations.