A parametric study on the use of passive fire protection in FPSO topside module

Fire is a continuous threat to FPSO topside modules as large amounts of oil and gas are passing through the modules. As a conventional measure to mitigate structural failure under fire, passive fire protection (PFP) coatings are widely used on main structural members. However, an excessive use of PFP coatings can cause considerable cost for material purchase, installation, inspection and maintenance. Long installation time can be a risk since the work should be done nearly at the last fabrication stage. Thus, the minimal use of PFP can be beneficial to the reduction of construction cost and the avoidance of schedule delay. This paper presents a few case studies on how different applications of PFP have influence on collapse time of a FPSO module structure. A series of heat analysis and thermal elasto-plastic FE analysis are performed for different PFP coatings and the resultant collapse time and the amount of PFP coatings are compared with each other. KEY WORDS: Passive fire protection, Collapse time, Heat transfer analysis, Thermal elatsto-plastic analysis