Electrical Testing in Deepwater Environments
When a subsea electrical fault such as Low Insulation Resistance (Low IR) occurs,
finding it from the surface is difficult. When this occurs in deep water,
pinpointing the exact location with the surface mounted instrumentation is even
more complex.
Water
Weights in partnership with Davy Systems has developed test instrumentation
that identifies electrical faults in power and control umbilicals at the
source. Most importantly, it is quick and accurate in an environment where time
is expensive.
- The equipment allows for each element of the subsea architecture to be isolated and tested individually and the fault(s) located; this enables repairs to be effected rapidly
- The system is highly portable
- It can operate in any type of work class ROV and is also capable of remote, high voltage testing that is user selectable
At the
surface is the Surface Control Unit (SCU) which allows full control of
switching of cores, cores to screen, power /comms, selection of the test type
to be run, test voltage and other test criteria. Interlocking ensures that
incorrect voltages and tests can not be applied to inappropriate cores. A rugged laptop provides live feedback of the test results with data trend
and logging.
Applications include:
- Integrity assessment during lay operations
- Post lay electrical testing
- Fault-finding diagnostics
- Scheduled maintenance program
- Multi-meter
- Digital Storage Oscilloscope
- FFT Spectrum Analyzer
- Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR)
