Case Study: 4Subsea AS extends subsea drilling equipment life with MSC Software Marc

Extending the Life of Subsea Drilling Equipment

4Subsea AS, an independent engineering company, faced the challenge of accurately predicting the fatigue life of critical subsea drilling equipment. The traditional S-N curve method often produced overly conservative results, which could unnecessarily limit drilling operations and have a huge economic impact by restricting the amount of oil and gas that could be produced from a well. They turned to MSC Software and its Marc finite element analysis software for a more precise solution.

MSC Software’s solution involved using the Virtual Crack Closure Technique (VCCT) within Marc to simulate growing cracks, providing more accurate and less conservative fatigue life predictions than the traditional method. This crack growth approach, which is accepted by regulatory authorities, gave 4Subsea a greater understanding of crack propagation and a moresea equipment could be extended considerably, allowing oil companies to gain financial benefits by increasing the extractable amount of oil from a well without any additional capital investment.

4Subsea AS