MIDSTREAM & PIPELINES
Understand And Control Vibration,
Before It’s Too Late
OGI sits down with Håvard Johnsen, the CEO of Momentum Technologies, to speak about their expertise
as an vibration specialist within the oil and gas sector. Primarily concerned with helping clients assess
and ultimately solve vibration issues with their pipelines, Mr Johnsen explains to our readers how both a
theoretical and hands-on approach is best when dealing with these situations because the client must be
sure that their asset is safe. The problem is, vibration causes fatigue in oil and gas pipelines, and fatigue
can cause disruption. It’s easy to see how this problem can cause a potential disaster, so we discuss with
Mr Johnsen, how these issues can be mitigated.
OGI: Could you start by explaining Momentum
Technologies’ credentials and experience in
terms of your products and services for the
oil and gas sector? Could you tell our readers
the breadth of your experience, how long the
company has been active, and its reach?
Johnsen: Momentum Technologies was founded
in 2016 and is today an established supplier of
expertise and products within vibration to the
oil and gas sector. However, the Momentum
team has a lot of experience within the field
and the business, so we were hardly beginners
when starting Momentum. We are operating out
of Norway, but through establishing an online
interface with the client and use innovative
work processes, we are able to deliver solutions
globally.
Through the years of operation of Momentum
we have had many assignments involving
both studying and performing measurements,
mainly of piping systems, where the client has
concerns regarding vibration or already have
vibration issues. Throughout this journey
it has been important for us to provide a
solution to the client, not only performing
an assessment. Therefore, do we always have
focus in understanding the often quite complex
mechanisms that might induce vibration and
not least to find a solution to mitigate them. We
want the client to be sure that his or her asset
is safe. A combination of a theoretical and a
“hands-on” approach that has been very well
valued by our clients. A natural part of this
business model is therefore to also have a
portfolio of vibration mitigation products
available, enabling us to also provide the
actual solution in an efficient way.
We are constantly working in improving
this product portfolio, both by seeking
partnerships with manufacturers of damping
products, but also, which is close to our
hearts, by innovating and developing our own
products.
OGI: Can you explain to our readers why
it’s important for a company to identify if a
vibration is a problem, or not?
Johnsen: The special thing about vibration is
that this is energy that might get reinforced
by the structure characteristics itself, in other
words resonance. A feared phenomenon that
traps energy in the system, and may lead large
structures into fatigue and self-destruction.
And of course, fatigue in oil or gas pipes, or in
other vital systems is not a desirable situation
for any energy company. That is why it is
important to identify if there is vibration, and
if so, understand why there is vibration and
most important, if it will imply a problem or
not.
OGI: What is vibration mitigating solutions?
Johnsen: To mitigate vibration there are
several approaches: easily summarized in that
either you have to “cure” the root cause or you
have to provide a “painkiller”, and sometimes
you need to combine these strategies.
Curing, or even better put, removing the root
cause is not always the easiest or cost-efficient
way. It may imply actions like reducing flow
rates, or re-designing and modifying the
piping system. Sometimes it is actually not
even possible to design the problem away –
hence there may be other design criteria that
needs to be fulfilled, or the chosen solution
is established as safe with regard to other
aspects.
A good example of this is subsea structures
and constructions, where introducing new
designs than the already established ones, is
a resource demanding task due to the need in
trust and extensive technology qualification of
a new subsea system.
Momentum Technologies in field, performing
vibration measurements.
Therefore the “painkiller” alternative can be
Håvard
Johnsen,
CEO of
Momentum
Technologies
a more attractive strategy in many situations.
One such solution could be installing a
vibration damper. There are different types of
vibration dampers, suitable for different types
of vibration but also different types of systems
and structures. What they have in common is
that they absorb the vibration energy and, in
that way, mitigate vibration.
OGI: Could you talk about VIBRAVISION
and NOISEVISION?
Johnsen: As I mentioned in the beginning,
to understand the problem is important to
us in order to find a good and safe solution
for our client. One vital part of this is also
to make the problem understandable to the
client, something that makes the process
and cooperation with the client much more
straight-forward and efficient. To visualize
vibration and sound that normally cannot
be seen by the naked eye, which we do
through our services VIBRAVISION and
NOISEVISION has therefore been a successful
approach.
VIBRAVISION is a portfolio of services
where vibration is visualized in different ways.
For example, it can be visualized through
simulations based upon calculations and/
or measurements, but also by using a video
measurement technique where vibration is
reinforced to become visible for the eye. The
video techniques can also be used to measure
vibration, which becomes handy when there