Offshore Platform Sensors 1

[Jeremy6]

I am looking for some numbers and information dealing with sensors on offshore petroleum processing platforms.

I am looking ot find the number of sensors, distance between them, frequency at which they read, number of nodes, criticality, and any related information.

If anyone could help me as to where I could find a resource containing this information that would be a major help.

Thank you very much,
Jeremy

 

[invalauble]

What kind of project are you working on?

You'd have to get in touch with an engineer at a company that operates an offshore platform. There are all kinds of electronic instruments, but they can be measuring pressure, temperature, mass flow rate, pulse frequency, differential pressure, pH, revolutions per minute, etc. You might look up associations of instrumentation and control engineers and contact them for more info.

As far as distance between insruments, goodness that depends. Older platforms have many fewer electronic instruments and most are pneumatic or manual gauges. New platforms are chock full of instruments.

Frequency - do you mean how often the instrument senses it's process variable (usually constantly)? Or do you mean how often the control system asks the instrument for it's latest reading (usually once every 1 or 2 seconds)? Or do you mean at what frequency a wireless instrument is transmitting information back to the host (don't know this one)?

Criticality - Some instruments are highly critical, and they may even be duplicates. Examples would be pressure transmitters on subsea wellheads, or pressure transmitters on the free water knockout vessel (platform inlet), or pressure transmitters on the dry crude offloading pipeline point. Other instruments may be less critical as far as safety but critical for process calculations, like the ambient temperature which is used in calculations for flow rates and processing capacity. And other sensors, like thermostats on heat-tracing lines, are not very critical at all in summertime.

Good luck, I know a bunch of general stuff but can't help you with a specific platform or actual numbers.

 

[Jeremy6]

I am working on a project called PAWS (Petroleum Applications for Wireless Systems)
I am looking for some basic characteristics for platforms,onshore and offshore, and relating regulations.

For the sensors/instruments I am basically focusing on Temperature, Pressure, Flow, Vibration and Stress/Strain.

Any information about these sensors would be a major benefit to me.
Thanks for your time,
Jeremy