20 years of monitoring of a steel jacket offshore platform: variability of environmental and modal parameters

The fixed steel offshore platform VEGA-A has been operating in the Sicily channel since 1988. The platform, one of the largest in the Mediterranean Sea, is equipped with a monitoring system that collects environmental (by means of a current meter, a depth gauge, and a system for detecting wind speed and direction) and structural (by means of nine accelerometers) data. After a description of the recording system, this paper provides a statistical interpretation of the structural response of the platform over the last 20 years. The structural monitoring system is aimed at performing dynamic identification (i.e., evaluating main frequencies and mode shapes), and part of the acquired data is directly processed on the platform in order to constantly check their representativeness in relation to the structural control of the platform. The possible variation of main frequencies and mode shapes over time may be due to both changes in environmental loads/conditions and/or structural damage; in this respect, a data-driven approach capable of recognizing anomalies in the dynamic behavior was adopted here to assess the performances of the platform over the 20 years monitoring period.