Session: 02-12-01 Digital Twins of Marine Structures 1

Submission Number: 180233

A Digital Twin Framework for Mooring Line Fatigue Integrity Assessment 

Mooring lines are essential structures for ensuring the station-keeping and safety of
floating offshore structures, such as oil and gas platforms and renewable energy floating
units. Numerous mooring line failures have been reported in recent years, primarily caused
by fatigue damage combined with corrosion of chain link elements. These incidents suggest
that current design methodologies may not properly address some aspects of the fatigue
damage process. Fatigue integrity of mooring lines refers to their ability to withstand
repeated stress cycles throughout their service life. This integrity is maintained by
accurately predicting fatigue damage through modeling and field data. An effective
approach to detecting long-term deviations in the structural response of mooring systems is
the development of a digital twin that accurately reproduces the actual system behavior.
This work proposes an innovative digital twin framework that combines advanced
numerical simulations with real-time floating unit position and motion data, as well as
operational records such as cargo loading distribution and inspection data, to create a high-
fidelity virtual representation of the mooring lines’ fatigue development. The proposed
digital twin framework provides an automated and continuous assessment of the mooring
lines, based on actual environmental conditions and corrosion data gathered during
inspections. This framework can be applied to evaluate the severity of cyclic loads for
fatigue damage accumulation, estimate the remaining fatigue life at any time during its
operational life, and support a reliability-based planning of future inspections.

Presenting Author: Gabriela Alves Estrela Federal University of Rio de Janeiro

Presenting Author Biography: Gabriela Alves Estrela holds a degree in Civil Engineering from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and a Master’s degree in Offshore Structures and Systems from COPPE/UFRJ. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in the same field. Since 2019, she has been working as a researcher at LACEO, where she has been involved in projects focused on fatigue analysis of rigid riser wellhead structures, structural reliability applied to cement sheaths, and digital twin analysis of mooring lines.

Authors:

Gabriela Alves Estrela Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Fellipe Araujo Gomes Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Marina Leivas Simão Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Paulo Maurício Videiro Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Luis Volnei Sudati Sagrilo Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Bai-Qiao Chen University of Lisbon
Mauro Costa De Oliveira Petrobras
Rodrigo Augusto Barreira Petrobras