Subsea Technology and Operations

Part 1: The Subsea Environment and the Impact on Design

● The subsea environment.

● Impact on design.
● Prospects for the future.

Subsea technology and operations

by Jens Chr. Lindaas translated by Kjell Eivind Helgesen
revised August 2013 July 2016
Subsea Technology and Operations, part 1: The Subsea Environment and the Premises of
Design

Table of Contents

1 The Subsea Environment and the Impact on Design in General

1.1 What Characterizes the Subsea Environment?
1.2 The Impact on Design - Special Requirements to Equipment and Materials
1.3 Prospects for the Future

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 Subsea Technology and Operations, part 1: The Subsea Environment and the Premises of
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1 The Subsea Environment and the Impact on

Design in General

1.1 What Characterizes the Subsea Environment?

When constructing or operating equipment to be used under water there is a host of natural
conditions that need to be taken into account:

➢ Water depth ⇒ hydrostatic pressure.

➢ Corrosive environment (seawater).

➢ Electrically conductive environment (seawater).
➢ Water is an incompressible fluid.
➢ Seabed conditions (firmness, sedimentary types, angle etc.).
➢ Poor visibility (often due to algae activity or swirling sediments).
➢ Daylight does not reach past a depth of about 100 meters.
➢ Light is refracted in water.
➢ Possibility of marine growth and bacterial activity, and the presence of fish.
➢ Differing water currents at the surface, along the seabed and in between.
➢ Weather and waves on the surface can impact the operation.

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 Subsea Technology and Operations, part 1: The Subsea Environment and the Premises of
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1.2 The Impact on Design - Special Requirements to

Equipment and Materials
The natural conditions given in chapter 1.1 give a host of requirements for the materials and
equipment that is to be used under water:

➢ The equipment has to be able to withstand the hydrostatic pressure of the

operating depth.

10 meters below the surface the hydrostatic pressure is approximately 1 bar (in
addition to the atmospheric pressure, also approximately 1 bar, at the surface). 100
meters below the surface the hydrostatic pressure has increased by 1 bar for every
10 meters and is therefore approximately 10 bar. The crucial points here are correct
strength dimensioning and correct choice of seals.

One example of this is the design of containers for electronic equipment. These
usually have an internal pressure equivalent to the atmospheric pressure, and have
to withstand the external hydrostatic pressure of the operating depth. In addition it is
very important to keep water from entering the container in any way in order to avoid
damage to the electronic components. This can be done by choosing appropriate
seals for all seams, lids and similar.

Other examples, like the design of hydraulic systems for use under water, a
compensator is used to equalize the pressure of the hydraulic fluid as it returns to the
reservoir with the external hydrostatic pressure of the current depth. This allows for
use of many standardized components, and avoids having to dimension the strength
of the components to withstand difference in pressure between the hydraulic fluid
and the external seawater.

➢ The equipment has to be able to endure water and the corrosive environment
that seawater represents.

This is especially important for so-called ‘permanent’ equipment installed on the

seabed for a longer period. Resistance to corrosion can be obtained through choice
of material (stainless / acid proof steel, plastic / polymers, or other corrosion resistant
materials). Another solution is the use of cathodic protection systems.

Use of acid proof steel will often be a very expensive solution.

Cathodic protection systems utilize electrical current to counteract or slow down the
corrosion process. Cathodic protection can be obtained by either electrifying the
equipment or the use of sacrificial anodes of a less noble material.

Paint or other surface coating is also slowing down the corrosion process, and is
often used in combination with cathodic protection.

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Galvanic corrosion is something to be aware of. Galvanic corrosion happens when

an unfortunate combination of materials are electrically linked to each other (bolted or
similar), submerged in an electrolyte /seawater. Then two materials that each on their
own are corrosion resistant can start corroding heavily if in contact with each other.
One example is acid proof steel and seawater resistant aluminium. The less noble
material will then assume the role of sacrificial anode and corrode heavily.

When using plastic materials water swelling is something to be aware of. Some
polymers have a tendency to swell under water. This means that their volume
increases due to water molecules penetrating into the atomic mesh of the material. A
nylon bearing with a tight fit can, after some time submerged, end up difficult to move
or even completely stuck. This will of course affect the function of equipment
negatively.

➢ The equipment has to be able to withstand being surrounded by an electrically

conductive fluid.

This necessitates strict requirements to insulation of electrical cable, wiring,

connections and components.

Ground faults, that is to say that the current leaks into seawater, is one of the most
common technical malfunctions on subsea equipment. This can lead to blackouts,
which are complete loss of manoeuvring and / or power supply to the system.
Connections are usually the weakest links, but damage to cables and wiring also
happen relatively often.

➢ The equipment has to be able to withstand being surrounded by an

incompressible fluid.

Water is an incompressible fluid, as opposed to air which is compressible. This has

an impact on equipment with hollow areas where the volume may change during use.

One example is certain types of quick-release connections on hydraulic hoses. Even

though they function perfectly above the surface surrounded by air, they are
practically impossible to connect when submerged. The reason for this being a piston
effect between the male and female part of the connector trapping water which again
blocks the connection because it cannot be compressed.

➢ Seabed requirements.

If the equipment is to be placed on the seabed, then the seabed has to be surveyed
to determine if it can withstand the weight of the equipment and if it has other
necessary properties.

Necessary properties may be:

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○ Load bearing capacity, given by the contact pressure between the seabed
and the equipment (is the seabed soft or hard?) [Pa = N/m2].
○ Shear strength of the sediments [Pa = N/m2].
○ Topography and the angle of the seabed compared to a horizontal plane.
○ Thickness and types of sediments.
○ Stability against settling and ocean current undermining.
○ Presence of boulders, pockmarks (‘craters’) and scraping lines.

For equipment foundations methods such as piling, suction anchors and mud mats
are used.

Piling is the act of driving steel pipes into the seabed vertically, thus ensuring a stable
connection between seabed and equipment.

Suction anchors have become popular in recent years. These are usually hollow,
cylindrical units with open bottoms and closed tops. The cylinder is lowered onto the
seabed, then a lower pressure is generated inside the suction anchor (basically
pumping seawater from inside the anchor to the outside). This means that the
hydrostatic pressure outside the anchor is greater than inside, and this pushes the
anchor into the seabed sediments. Another way of looking at it is that the anchor is
sucking itself into the seabed, much like a suction cup used on a sheet of glass.

Mud mats exploit relatively large horizontal seabed surfaces as foundations, letting
the equipment ‘float’ on top of the seabed sediments. In many cases this is not stable
enough, especially sideways. As a result, mud mats are often equipped with vertical
‘skirts’ that cut into the sediments to keep them in place.

➢ The equipment should be usable during poor visibility and difficult light
conditions.

Poor visibility is often a result of seabed sediments being disturbed by ocean currents
or propeller / thruster activity. Algae can also heavily affect visibility.

For ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicles) it is necessary to use other navigational

equipment, and not just visual systems (video cameras).

Other navigational equipment might be:

➢ Sonar.
➢ Gyrocompass.
➢ Hydro acoustic navigation.

Gravel and sand can also be whirled up from the seabed by water movements, and
can negatively affect the mechanical functions of the equipment. Examples are extra
wear and tear, jamming moveable parts / bearings and damage sealing surfaces.

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It is necessary to bring powerful lighting for operations at night and at greater depths.

When using optical equipment, such as video cameras, underwater, it is important to

take light refraction into account. The refraction happens both as the light moves
from water and into the camera housing port (glass, translucent polymer or similar),
and as it moves from the camera housing port and into the gas-filled atmosphere of
the camera housing where the camera itself is positioned.

➢ The equipment has to withstand marine growth and bacterial activity.

So long as daylight reaches the area of operation, there will be marine growth. This
can create problems with regards to function and access.

Examples of this are inspections, where it is often necessary to clean the area before
the inspection itself can begin.

Bacterial activity can arise in hydraulic systems that have been submerged
continually for some time.

The presence of marine life, fish and even whales, can create problems during
operations. Fish will often be attracted by the ROV lighting, and whales are curious
creatures that sometimes decide to investigate what is causing such a ruckus
nearby.

➢ The equipment should be usable with the ocean currents present in the area of
operation.

For ROVs this results in requirements to speed in order to maintain control of the
vehicle.

Important here is the drag (both on the vehicle itself and on its tether), and available
thruster effect.

➢ The equipment has to be reliable and safe even when the distance to the
control station is large.

At greater depths there is, of course, a large distance between the surface vessel
(with the control station) and the area of operation (with the ROV). This results in
requirements to the voltage going through the tethering cable in order to avoid too
much loss of effect.

Transferring signals through the same cable can result in interference and signal
noise, which can be problematic. Fibre is being used more and more for signal
transfer to avoid this.

The large distances between subsea installations and surface vessel also have to be
taken into account. With large distances and complicated operations, the

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requirements to reliability and safety increases. The consequences of failure can be

great. When divers are in the water it is a matter of fact that failures in critical
equipment can become life-threatening. Failures in equipment on subsea
installations can, in a worst-case-scenario, result in a free flow of oil and gas into the
environment.

Mobilizing a surface vessel with ROVs and / or divers is a costly affair, and it is
therefore preferable to avoid unscheduled repairs of subsea installations or adding
days to an operation due to equipment failures.

➢ Weather and waves.

Subsea operations are usually controlled from a surface vessel. Weather and waves
can very much affect the possibility of performing an operation. This is especially the
case with lifting operations and when deploying or recovering ROVs due to the wave-
induced motions of the surface vessel. The use of active heave compensation
systems can often dramatically decrease the weather and wave sensitivity of the
surface vessel.

Wave motions on the surface affect the particle velocities further down in the water
and have to be taken into account, especially in shallow waters.

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1.3 Prospects for the Future

In the last decades the driving force of subsea technology has been the oil and gas industry.
This is not only true for Norway, but also globally.

There is also a clear trend of having to operate in increasingly deeper waters in order to find
new oil and gas reservoirs. In 1985 the construction of the Troll field, at a water depth of 350
meters, was a huge challenge. Today, search for oil and gas and installation of new
production facilities are performed at water depths of several thousand metres, for example
outside the coast of Brazil.

This effectively means that the use of divers is completely removed from the equation, and
this results in an added drive to create better and more reliable remotely operated
technology, both for running subsea installations and for the use of equipment and ROVs
that are going to service the installations.

Even though there have been new, large findings on the Norwegian continental shelf in the
past few years, the available oil and gas resources in Europe are relatively small on the
global scale. It is therefore important for the Norwegian oil and gas industry to go
international.

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