Development of a robust and cost-effective graphite nanoplatelate-reinforced composite riser and its simultaneous condition monitoring.

有强有力的证据表明，石油和天然气行业对使用先进纤维增强复合材料（AFRP）制成的管道（从海底延伸到钻井平台的管道）感兴趣，因为钢管道在深水（500- 1，499米）应用中会带来严重的挑战。 甚至，使用AFRP制造用于超深水勘探（1,500米以上）的水下机器人也面临着严峻的挑战。 此外，由于传统使用的无损检测方法被认为是昂贵且不切实际的，因此对于确保其预期使用寿命所需的在役检查存在若干挑战。 近年来，多功能纳米碳的出现彻底改变了设计方法的可能性，这些方法可能用于生产这种要求苛刻和复杂的系统。 在大多数情况下，已经证明在树脂中包含纳米碳管增加了主体树脂的机械性能和韧性，但在层压材料水平上，它们的包含实际上会降低层压材料的机械性能;并且它们非常昂贵。另一方面，碳纳米颗粒（NCP），特别是石墨纳米板，比其他纳米碳更经济，并且策略性地和最佳地建立的GNP体积包含可以产生复合材料的机械性能的有用增强。 它们还可以使复合材料成为压敏电阻和/或磁阻的，从而使它们能够充当传感器和/或致动器。因此，GNP可用于生产具有出色机械性能的混合AFRP纤维，具有成本效益，但同时，它们的存在可用于实时监控这种要求苛刻的结构的使用条件。 因此，该项目旨在选择和采用最有效和最经济的GNP，目的是生产用于深水沃茨的创新、弹性和成本效益高的FRP防水板，其状况（健康）也可以通过GNP的固有导电性能进行有效监测。

There is strong evidence that oil and gas industry is interested in using risers (the pipe that extends up from the seafloor to a drilling platform) made of advanced fiber-reinforced composites (AFRP), because steel risers pose serious challenges when used in deep water (500-1,499 m) applications. Even, the use of AFRP for fabricating risers for use in ultra-deep water exploration (1,500 m and more) has been posing serious challenges. In addition, there are several challenges with respect to their in-service inspection necessary for assuring their intended service lives, since the conventionally used non-destructive testing methods are deemed expensive and impractical. The emergence of multifunctional nano-carbons in recent years has revolutionized the possibilities of design methodologies that could be potentially used in producing such demanding and complex systems. The inclusion of nanocarbon tubes in resins have been demonstrated, in most cases, to have increased the mechanical properties and toughness of the host resin, but at the laminate level, their inclusion could actually degrade the laminates mechanical properties; and, they are very expensive. Carbon nanoparticles (NCP), specifically, graphite nano-platelates, on the other hand, are more economical than other nanocarbons and a strategically and optimally established volume inclusion of GNP could produce useful enhancement in the mechanical properties of the composite. They can also make the composite peizoresistive and/or magnetoresistive, thus enabling them to act as sensors and/or actuators. GNP can therefore be used to produce hybrid AFRP risers with outstanding mechanical properties, cost-effectively, but at the same time, their presence can be exploited for monitoring the in-service condition of such demanding structures, in real-time. This project, therefore aims at selecting and incorporating the most effective and affordable GNP with the purpose of producing innovative, resilient and cost-effective FRP risers for use in deep waters, whose condition (health) could also be effectively monitored via the inherent conductive properties of the GNP.