Trelleborg Boosts Houston Offshore Engineering Team

Trelleborg’s offshore operation based in Houston has invested in a new ‘Global Riser Analysis’ team to incorporate in-house mathematical simulation capabilities into its current engineering group.

The Global Riser Analysis team consists of local and global finite element (FE) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis personnel utilizing specialized software which should enable Trelleborg to deliver an even more complete engineering service. The team are able to model equipment and system responses to environmental forces, providing greater opportunities for design optimization across the full range of Trelleborg’s product offerings. Potential benefits to customers include cost savings, increased service life and multi-functional designs.

Antony Croston, business group director with Trelleborg’s offshore operation, said: “We are committed to continuously improving our engineering and manufacturing services and the Global Riser Analysis team will be a great addition to our engineering group. Through this new service, the team will help advance our product development and design opportunities at the system level as well as bring innovative ideas and cost savings to our customers.”

In addition to advances in product design, Trelleborg’s offshore operation aims to utilize established consulting backgrounds within the Global Riser Analysis team to offer customers in-house global and local analyses of offshore drilling and production operations, applying a fully coupled vessel to well approach. These riser studies should assist in defining operational methodologies and structural system limitations for offshore drilling and production operations globally, the company explains.

Croston continues: “The Riser Analysis team will be able to consult with our clients on active projects and offer the best solution based on a true optimization of product performance and the overall effect on the system design. We will be ideally placed to advise which design choices give the biggest payback in terms of maximizing operational efficiency.

“Our future strategy is to expand our analysis capabilities, through partnerships, integration of real world data from field deployed acquisition systems, and verification testing to develop creative solutions to the present and future challenges presented to the offshore energy industries.”

The Global Riser Analysis team is said to be currently developing solutions to reduce drilling riser drag and fatigue loadings for the purposes of improving rig uptime in the most demanding environments.