1

Overview of Polymer Composite Rope 2. Riser Configurations

for Buoy Support Structure Tethering Operating at deepwater, riser withstands massive tension
System load from the self-weight which amplified by the motion of
the vessel. Depend on the global behaviour, structural
integrity, cross-sectional properties, material, quantity and
by cost deepwater riser can be built in several configurations
Akbar August Indhama (Bai and Bai, 2005; Aberle and Christensen, 2016) which
in general categorised as free hanging and supported
ABSTRACT system, figure 1.
The weight of risers and tethering system increases along
with the water depth. For buoy support structure (BSS)
conventional tether such as wire rope and chain oblige the
structure to be built bigger to ensure the payload and
stability.
As the effort in harvesting the oil and gas getting deeper, a
solution to find lighter tethering or mooring system become
more important. The composite material has been known
for a better performance against the monolithic material. It
can be manufactured as high strength rope which allow to
Figure 1 A: free hanging catenary configuration; B:
be used as mooring system.
supported system
This paper present an overview of the application of
The free hanging system is the simplest configuration that
polymer composite rope for BSS tethering system based on
also provides the cheapest installation cost as it requires the
literature review and experience in fabrication phase of
less number of subsea infrastructures and less effort in the
Ichtys Mid Depth Buoy Structure.
installation process. At this system, the riser is directly
hanged by the surface facility and lowered down to the
1. Introduction subsea facility. However, this system is vulnerable to high
amplification of tension load from vessel motions make it
Indonesias oil and gas production decline about 30 percent most likely suffer a compression buckling due to large
from the past ten years (Advisory, 2016). With the vessel offset and bird caging problem at tensile armour (Bai
increasing demand for oil and gas, Indonesia announces to and Bai, 2005).
start development of several deepwater fields to lift the
production. The Abadi and Kutei Basin gas field, which The supported riser system use a fixed structure or buoyant
divided into several blocks, promise good future to the module/structure to reduce tension load at the top end of
Industry. Situated at 610 m - 1829 m of water depth, it the riser as well as minimise the effect of vessel motions. It
challenges the application of new technology in Indonesia requires more infrastructure and complex operation for
(IQ, 2014b; IQ, 2014a). installation. Explanation of riser support will be discussed
in next section.
The riser poses an important role for deepwater operation,
it provides a transmission link between wells to the surface
facilities. In some cases, riser requires supports to reduce 3. Riser Support
the load, it may come in the form of buoy support structure
The concept of support is to protect the riser from surface
(BSS), buoyant module or fixed structure.
environment load by attaching the span on the support and
With bigger reserves, the future deepwater field in continuing the line to surface facility in a lower tension
Indonesia will produce in higher rate, Jangkrik field (Cruz et al., 2015a). It results in longer fatigue life due to
produces 450 million metric cubic feet of gas per day the decoupling of vessel motions from touchdown point
(Press-Release, 2014) while Kutei Basin is expected to and reduction of surface facility payload.
produces a total 1120 million cubic feet of natural gas per
Riser support can be developed in various ways, buoyant
day (IQ, 2014a). The application of BSS would be suit the
module, fixed structure and buoy structure as shown in
operation as it located at deepwater and require more riser
figure 2 are the most common ways to provide support for
to support the production target.
the riser. The selection of support type shall consider many
The BSS is mostly tethered to foundation structure by wire aspects, water depth, stability, sea-bed condition and riser
rope and chain blocks. However, as the material which used quantity for instance.
to make wire rope or chain block is mainly made from steel
The buoyant module, figure 2C, provides the flexibility to
it is contributing in adding significant extra payload to the
install, it is cheaper than another type of support. However,
BSS during service. The primary objective of this paper is
the riser configuration may change due to irregular content
to discuss the utilization of composite rope to address the
density and the potential risers clash in multi-risers
problem which occur due to tether weight. Further
arrangement (Bai and Bai, 2005). The fixed support
economic and technical analysis could be conducted to
structure, shown in figure 2A reduces the problem of risers
obtain a more accurate application of composite rope for
interference (Nial Coone, 2016; Rayapa and Christensen,
deepwater project.
2016) for multi-risers arrangement. However, it less
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economically feasible compared to buoyant module and

structure in the deepwater application.
The buoy support structure (BSS), figure 2B, consists of a
submerged platform where catenary risers are hanged at
one side and jumpers at the other end to continue the line
to floating unit and the foundation structure at the seabed
(Cruz et al., 2015b). The system shall be capable of
accommodating accidental flooding and accommodating
risers content loss by keeping the altitude within allowable
tolerances (Cruz et al., 2015a).
: damping ratio =
2( + )
Content changes shall be taken into consideration as it
potentially causes stability problem during operation. The
tilting of buoy structure occurs when CoG and up-lift forces
are not located in line and result in a negative reaction at
one side, figure 3 shows simple mechanism of inclined
condition by CoG shift. Therefore, vertical trust margin
shall be provided to avoid an adverse reaction. In another
word, all tether lines shall remain in tension in all cases.

Figure 3 the effect of CoG shift

Figure 2 A: fixed support structure; B: buoyant support
structure; C: buoyant support module
4. Polymer Composite Rope For BSS
The core benefit which making it more competitive
compared to another type of support is feasibility for
deepwater application along with avoiding risers
interference problem. To support the risers, the buoy
structure shall provide positive nett thrust in all cases
within the allowable inclination and elevation (Cruz et al.,
2015b).
Depend on the altitude of BSS, the buoy may be subjected
to heave force from the surface motion. The heave force
and response is described in following equations:
( + ) + + = 0 () advantages of composite material are flexibility to meet
0 : heave force =
A: area
(0 ) ( ) steel
(): motion =
2 2 2
[1 ( ) ] + (2 )
The composite material offers excellent weight to strength
and weight to stiffness ratio. The application of polymer
composite rope to replace the conventional wire or chain
tether can reduce the requirement of uplift force. Polymer
composite rope could be made from high strength aramid,
polyester, high-modulus polyethylene (HMPE), liquid
crystal polymer (LCAP) or polyamide materials (Vasiliev
and Morozov, 2007; DNV-GL, 2015a) which can be
fabricated in different configurations to get higher tension
capacity or to suit specific loading type for cost saving.
4.1 Polymer Composite Material
In general, the polymer composite material consists of high
strength fibre and matrix which are bonded together, figure
4, to form a new material that produces desirable material
characteristic. Bonded together, the composite material
works as a system, the loads are carried by the fibre while
the matrix act as load conductor, fibre protector and
maintain the fibre at designed formation. The key
specific performance, high strength and stiffness,
lightweight, anti-corrosion and better fatigue performance
(Vasiliev and Morozov, 2007; Chawla, 2011). Figure 5 and
6 compares the performance of composite materials and

: natural frequency =
+

2 ( )
1
: potential velocity = ( )
2
[1 ( ) ]
Figure 4 the bonding of several fibres inside matrix
: restoring coefficient =

Figure 5 Composite material against steel, adopted
from (Chawla, 2011)
Figure 6 Comparison of stress and strain diagrams
(Vasiliev and Morozov, 2007)
The strength and endurance of polymer composite rope are
governed by the native material. Figure 6 shows a
randomly distributed fibre inside the matrix. To calculate
the strength of polymer composite material, the fibres are
assumed ideally distributed inside the matrix and have an
equal strain, volume V and mass M (Vasiliev and Morozov,
2007).
Combined loading is catenary action, a load that
= , = comprises of axial load and bending or twisting.
= , =
= + , = +
3
= + = +
4.2 Rope Construction
A rope structure is initially built with a filament of fibre
(yarn) which twisted to get larger and stronger section
which called rope yarn/rods(McKenna et al., 2004). The
fibre rope can be constructed in several configurations, for
example, single rope in a braided helical strands
arrangement or bundle of parallel element of yarns, shown
in figure 7 and 8. The parallel design requires additional
structure to maintain loading-bearing element together
which called jacket, it needs to be porous to keep the whole
line flooded (DNV-GL, 2015a). The termination of fibre
rope usually constructed with splice end eyes to make up
the fibre rope segment (DNV-GL, 2015b).
Figure 7 Braided rope construction (McKenna et al.,
2004; Boer et al., 2013)
Figure 8 Jacket layer (McKenna et al., 2004)
4.3 Rope Loading
The tether receives the load from the uplift force and the
motion of buoy. Tether response, maximum and minimum
angle and tension of rope shall be identified to select the
proper rope type. DNV-GL-E305 underline two kinds of
loading for offshore fibre ropes, point to point loading and
combined loading which will be discussed in point below:
Point to point loading is described as pure axial load at
a condition where the rope has no slack along the line.
Line with parallel configuration only suitable to use at
this condition
Bending is described as a state where the rope is
deflecting under axial tension while twist is the results
of relative rotation between the end of terminations or
locally in the body of rope. A condition when the tether
receive a combined load is depicted in figure 9.

Figure 9 Catenary action
4.4 Rope Strength
Rope strength determined by the value of minimum
breaking load (MBL). The term of MBL refers to a value
of the lowest tension force that can be applied to break the
line. At a different temperature, a composite rope will have
a different tension strength. The test to expedite the value
of MBL shall be conducted by considering the relationship
of tension, time and temperature. The lowest results shall
be the governing value of MBL (DNV-GL, 2015a).
5. Rope Inspections
The reliability of composite rope shall be monitored during
the service period. The examination shall be regularly
conducted (Stonor et al., 1999), more detail investigation
shall be carried out if damage exists at the jacket line.
Figure 10 describes the flow of inspection, explanation of
inspection types will be discussed in subsection.
The type of investigation shall be performed according to
the level of damage which categorises into three tiers
(DNV, 2015):
4
- Level 1, undamaged strand have adequate
capacity for service
- Level 2, the damaged strand affecting the capacity
of rope without affecting the fatigue performance
- Level 3, the damaged strand affecting the fatigue
performance
5.1 General inspection
It is performed to obtain the potential areas of damage by
visual inspection. The examination shall be conducted prior
installation and ROV survey during the service period.
5.2 Close Inspection
Close inspection is performed when potential damage
identified at general inspection. A more detail assessment
shall be conducted to check the damage on jacket layer. A
repair is required if the jacket or filter is damaged.
5.3 Subrope Inspection
The inspection of strand shall be performed if filter layer is
damaged. If the strand is missing at the damaged area, the
further examination shall be conducted to distinguish
severed strand. Otherwise, the line could remain in service
by repairing the filter and jacket.
5.4 Damage Inspection
The damage inspection conducted to assess the effect of the
damaged strand to the fatigue performance.
6. Conclusions
The composite rope can be used to replace the utilisation of
chain or wire rope for BSS. It provides strength which
required to hold the BSS and high toughness to resist
premature replacement due to fatigue problem. The high
strength to weight ratio lead the line to be more axially
operated as the catenary deflection can be minimised due
to insignificant weight of composite tether. From the safety
aspect, the weight and stiffness of composite rope make it
relatively easy to handle during fabrication, transportation
and installation process compare to wire rope or chain
which has a similar strength.

Figure 10 Inspection process of composite rope
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