Vibration-induced fatigue on process pipework
- Safety Flash
- Published on 20 February 2014
- Generated on 31 October 2025
- IMCA SF 02/14
- 1 minute read
The National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority of Australia (NOPSEMA) has published the following safety flash regarding a discovery, during a recent inspection at a facility, of vibration-induced fatigue cracking and evidence of rectification work carried out on several small bore connections on seawater cooling pipes.
The operator of the facility initially did not report the incident as a dangerous occurrence (damage to safety critical equipment), as it was considered only a ‘minor weep’.
The potential dangers of vibration-induced metal fatigue or other vibration-induced damage to materials and equipment go beyond just process pipework on oil and gas installations and could have much wider implications for IMCA member’s. For this reason IMCA is passing this safety flash onto its members.
The safety flash can be downloaded from nopsema.gov.au/assets/alert/Alert-58.pdf.
IMCA Safety Flashes summarise key safety matters and incidents, allowing lessons to be more easily learnt for the benefit of the entire offshore industry.
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