A NEW ADHESIVELY BONDED COMPOSITE REPAIR FOR OFFSHORE STEEL STRUCTURES: STRENGTH ASSESSMENT AND FATIGUE

Floating productions, storage and offloading (FPSO) units are subject to corrosion problems. The use of adhesively bonded FRP patches as a repair appears to be a particularly interesting solution. However, design strategies still need to be improved and validated to insure the robustness and, ultimately, confidence in this solution. Since 2018, Bureau Veritas leads a joint industrial project called Strength Bond Offshore which aims at defining such a design strategy. First, the patch designed during this project will be presented. Then, the experimental test campaign is detailed: manufacturing, monotonic tests in traction and bending. Finally, the results of the fatigue tests campaign are developed. Ongoing additional developments are under progress to better assess equivalent interfacial behaviors for an overall design strategy.