Performance analysis for subsea blind shear ram preventers subject to testing strategies

Abstract In a subsea blowout preventer system, a subsea blind shear ram preventer (BSRP) plays as a crucial safety barrier by cutting off the drill pipe and sealing the wellhead to prevent serious accidents. Testing and repairs of BSRPs are the main issues in operation and maintenance activities. It is important to assess BSRPs unavailability during proof and partial testing phases in order to ensure their safety functions. This paper presents a newly state-based approach for unavailability analysis by incorporating testing activities of BSRPs into multiphase Markov process. In the approach, states waiting for repair are taken into consideration. Analytical formulas for evaluation of time-dependent unavailability and average unavailability for BSRPs are developed. In addition, the non-periodic characteristics and effects of degradation are also taken into account in proof testing. The effects of testing errors and postponed repairs on the tendency of unavailability in partial testing phases are checked in the proposed models. Performance analyses for BSRPs configurations, scenarios and cases considered in the paper are carried out to demonstrate the application of the proposed models. Monte Carlo models for both proof and partial testing are developed and simulated. Different comparisons are performed for validation of the set of the derived formulations.