Since the first umbilicals were developed and installed to control and preserve subsea equipment they have continued to evolve to ensure effective operation in an increasingly challenging subsea environment. New material technologies, complex analysis tools and umbilical architectures have been developed to ensure umbilical systems operate through-out their service life irrespective of the ambient temperature, fatigue loading, hyperbaric pressure and tensile loads applied.
In more recent years, as the subsea industry adapts to the challenge of reducing CAPEX costs driven by reduced oil prices, the potential cost savings through adapting the subsea processing system to treat processed fluids on the seabed and / or utilising longer step out systems from existing facilities is driving a new step in umbilical evolution.
To support the potential evolution in subsea processing systems, the conventional control umbilical must evolve to incorporate the supply of electrical power and potentially electrical control to replace hydraulic control over long step out distances. This has a significant influence on the design of the umbilical system, introducing several new challenges which need to be addressed through material selection and advanced analysis techniques.
This paper will provide an overview of the potential evolution of the Next Generation All Electric umbilical and outline the design challenges and methods developed to maximise the reliability of the umbilical system.
