Benefits of Risk Based Inspection Planning for Offshore Structures

The economical benefits of applying risk-based inspection planning (RBI) for offshore structures subject to fatigue are evaluated based on experiences from past industrial projects. To this end, the factors influencing the cost of inspection, repair and failure of structures are discussed and realistic values of these costs are presented. These are then applied to assess the expected costs from different inspection strategies, both risk-based strategies as well as inspection strategies with fixed inspection intervals for all potentially critical elements. By comparing these expected costs, the financial benefit of RBI is assessed.