Overview
 
Highly sensitive leakage detection

A subsea production umbilical is a large component of your overall system capital costs and is expected to last the lifetime of your asset. So, continuous monitoring of the health of your umbilicals is critical to the smooth functioning of your whole subsea control system. It can provide advance warning if any degradation in the system is expected and allow preventative measures to be put in place in a timely and OPEX-efficient manner.

With its combination of sophisticated hardware and advanced software algorithms, Baker Hughes's umbilical monitoring device (UMD) can detect a wide range of leakage conditions in the installation of electrical umbilical cores. The device’s high sensitivity is achieved through intelligent signal amplification, a precise online calibration service, and DC-offset detection and elimination.

 

Continuous monitoring

Our UMD is specifically designed to monitor the health of an umbilical’s electrical conductors continuously. Connected to the umbilical by applying a DC signal (less than 50 V) in analogue mode, and a pulsed DC signal in digital mode, the

UMD measures the insulation resistance between the umbilical electrical conductors and the system ground, with a high degree of sensitivity. Baker Hughes's UMD can measure with 1,000 times the sensitivity of a legacy traditional line-insulation monitor.

 

Advanced early warning and flexible integration

The UMD’s advanced analysis capabilities also represent a crucial step forward in enabling early warning of a pending insulation failure, while a system-friendly measuring signal is controlled by pulse-width modulation, so that the signal frequency and pulse width can be varied to maximize application flexibility. The processing-power and data-acquisition interface includes our versatile SemStar5™ single-board processing module, which offers the advantages of real-time operation and obsolescence management.

 

Industry-leading technology

With its sophisticated hardware and advanced software algorithms, the UMD can detect a wide range of leakage conditions in your electrical umbilical cores. And, unlike generic insulation-resistance (IR) monitoring devices for cross-industry use, Baker Hughes's UMD has a range and accuracy designed specifically for subsea umbilicals: less than 5% error for umbilicals of 10 KΩ to 5 GΩ, and less than 20% error for umbilicals of 5 GΩ to 10 GΩ. Leakage capacitance measurements are in the 100 nF to 1 μFT range. This range and accuracy provide more extensive and granular data for the Baker Hughes digital IR-monitoring application, which in turn provides continuous and predictive analysis of subsea insulation resistance. This enables timely intervention during planned interventions, rather than ad hocresolution of IR-related failures.

 

Easy configuration

The UMD has two alarm settings, Low (L) and Low-Low (LL). These are triggered when the electrical conductor, IR, falls below the desired thresholds—the parameters of which are easily configured. The signal for the L or LL alarm can be seen through the communications interface and it will also activate a visible LED indicator on the front panel of the unit. Configuration for audible alarms and isolation of power to the primary of the subsea isolation transformer can be enabled.

 

Precise condition monitoring

The UMD can actively function while connected to umbilicals powered up to 1,000 VAC at 50–60 Hz. It has an online earth test circuit that warns if the unit is not adequately grounded. An earth fault allows an earth leakage current to flow through the measuring circuit to calculate IR in analogue mode, or IR and leakage capacitance in digital mode. Using these parameters, the UMD calculates the exact condition of the umbilical system without affecting your subsea power.

 

Typical lead time of 10 months

A UMD is provided as part of an electrical power unit or subsea power and comms unit, with a lead time of 10 months.

 

Key features:
  • Insulation resistance measurement accuracy: <5% error for umbilicals of 10 KΩ to 5 GΩ; <20% error for umbilicals of 5 GΩ to 10 GΩ
  • Leakage capacitance measurement: 100 nF to 1 μF
  • Measures both insulation resistance and leakage capacitance
  • Ethernet MODBUS TCP interface simplifies communications with topside monitoring equipment
  • Data logging and trending of umbilical conditions
  • Fully configurable alarm capabilities: standard communications interface and front-panel LED alarms
  • Capacity to trigger audible alarms at workstation and isolate power
  • SemStar5 processing core for real-time operation and obsolescence management

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