ABS issued an approval in principle (AIP) to Petrobras for its safety-enhancing “sandwich hull” design concept for floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) tanks.
The design uses parts of longitudinal and transverse elements constructed with steel-concrete-steel sandwich structures that allow tanks to remain free of internal obstructions, promising to improve operational efficiency during tank inspections and enabling activities to be performed using remotely operated tools and automated devices such as robots.
ABS completed design reviews based on class requirements.