Revisiting the collapse of the Alexander L Kielland platform

40 years ago, the Alexander L Kielland oil platform suffered a catastrophic structural failure and sank into the North Sea, with 123 of the crew onboard losing their lives. Today, Dr Edwin France brings his decades of experience in welding engineering to bear on the report into the cause of the collapse, and describes his different conclusions.

Read Dr Frances paper on the platform collapse here, and visit his website here.

Transcript

spk_1:   0:16
Hello, I'm will. Welcome to research part on a rocky cliff midway down the western coast of the staff Anger province in Norway stand two giant, interlocked links of iron chain pointing out into the North Sea. They serve as a memorial to the collapse of the Alexander Elke land platform, which sunk the evening off March 27th 1980 shortly before 6 30 PM, amid 40 knot winds and 12 metre high waves, five of the six anchor cables securing the rig snapped on the platform tilted 30 degrees to the site before stabilising. By seven o'clock, the last anchor cable had snapped on the rig had begun to capsize. 89 of the crew on the rig that day escaped with their lives. 123 didn't. 40 years on. We revisit the report into the underlying cause of the collapse of the next boat witness in metallurgy, who has come to different conclusions of just what led to the worst Norwegian offshore disaster since World War Two. Joining me in this episode is someone who has quite literally written the book on welding, engineering, professional welding engineer, a charted engineer, a fellow of the institute of materials, minerals and mining. Someone who spent longer in welding engineering than I've been alive. Dr. Edwin James, France. Dr. France. Could we start with maybe a summary of your experiences? An engineer and as a consultant, I

spk_0:   1:42
got into, Ah, the subject of welding engineering when I actually left university. Ah left university round about 1974. I got my first job was with a comical fairy engineering in Stockport who made military products and nuclear products sensitive stuff. Yeah. Oh, yes. Yeah. Then I eventually went to work for reached nuclear fuels in the 19 eighties. Andi, I did about eight or nine years there, So I was working for companies. A za welding engineer about 1989 left British nuclear fuels. And with a colleague of mine, we formed a company called Fabrication Technology into Face Limited. And we run that for 10 years on. Since 2000 I've been on my owner's E J friends consulting, professional welding and Jerry consultants. I've been doing expert witness for search of years on DH. I solve people's problems in welding engineering. They respond very well. My client's respond very well and they produce a very high quality product what I mean by a high quality well D products. That is something which in its material condition on DH in its physical condition. It has a very low level of imperfection.

spk_1:   2:56
Rather than working to make a perfect world,

spk_0:   3:00
you can't make a perfect well. It's impossible because you defied the laws of physics. If you did

spk_1:   3:13
in preparation, they have read the papers on your website, which is E. J. France consulting dot co dot UK. We have helpfully got to your fundamentals of welding article and also the Alexander Elk Island disaster revisited, where the details are explained in full. So I'll be asking you now and again to maybe explain some of the terms of some of the phrases to meet to our listeners. But for now, if we could ease ourselves into some of the theory and practise of welding engineering,

spk_0:   3:41
if I ask you a question now, what is your perception of what welding is?

spk_1:   3:47
Not much more than having seen some discovery shows where they've got people working in a motorbike shop or in the Mythbusters lab or something where they are doing some welding? I've seen welding happen like a bigger version ofthe soldering that there is the application off heat and the metal to join two other pieces of metal together is probably, if, no, almost entirely wrong.

spk_0:   4:11
It is, yes, yeah, on my

spk_1:   4:14
own up to that entirely.

spk_0:   4:15
I'd like to reassure you that No, it's not your fault that you're in that position. It's more of my fault. That's the situation, because the truth about welding what it's about, it's not effectively communicated either, through ah, TV radio magazines. If you go into a factory, are something you see someone you think is welding, it's not very well communicated. You know, I've obviously seen some of these programmes that you see on TV, for example, on the various channels. I mean not just say the BBC, but all the channels like Quest on Discovery and history channels. You'll see visual depictions of welding on da verbal descriptions of welding on DH. What I want to say to you know, it is a fact that there isn't one sentence or one visual depiction of welding that is true on television.

spk_1:   5:17
Hear of a guy with a big torch, the flap down mask

spk_0:   5:20
flying everywhere what you usually have So that, for example, the talking about the economy and you get a presenter or a reporter, you'll stand with his microphone in a fabrication shop in front of her. A welder, as all that represents industry, you know? Yeah, well, I mean, that is pathetic. You got this. This fireworks going off right now. This is with the metal active gas process, which is where the wire comes through. A gold on you strike an electric arc. The wire is the consumer is transferred to the joint.

spk_1:   5:51
Okay,

spk_0:   5:51
Okay. So you want the consumable, which is usually a wire can be other things, but it's usually a wire that has to be transferred to the joint. Teo, bring about welding. You want the consumable to go into the joint to make the world to bond the two parts together, for example, all of these firework droplets that you see there that's well, consumable that well, consumable is going all over the floor. It's not going into the joint that tells you there's something long.

spk_1:   6:22
So unless in perfect welfare would be not having this share of sparks not having the grand light show, but just the proper application off wire consumable.

spk_0:   6:32
The transfer of the consumable is incorrect as far as I'm concerned. Is that the TV people think that you know the short guy loose, spectacular, you know. But it's communicating all the wrong evidence about what's true about welding. I mean, when I train world, I never trained them to produce a heart condition like that.

spk_1:   7:10
So there has to be a proper joy. And depending on the thickness of material, depending on the consumable that you're using, these all have to be measured, considered to make a better world possible.

spk_0:   7:20
Your description of welding is improving, not quite correct at the moment. Your description is it is improving.

spk_1:   7:29
How would you make the least imperfectly world?

spk_0:   7:33
It's not incorrect of me to say that all welding fabricates is to include my class. Their problems when they were holding things together is just that's normal for, well, the engineering. It's normal all the time, all the time when you wielding, fabricating something, you have to be continually trying to achieve control of the application of the welding process is that's absolutely vital. You've got to keep doing it. The objective in welding is to produce in the joint, and it's usually it's usually in pure metals or the allies of metals. That's really the bulk of welding of the more. But you can weld, for example, thermo plastics. You can't do that. Where you want to achieve in metal on metal alloy wells is the optimum material condition on the optimum physical condition. The optional material condition is in the crystal structure of the ally. This is mythology if you like you, but he has to have a certain crystal a graphic arrangement, shall we say OK as to have the optimum material condition. But the optimum physical condition is our things, like other. Any cracks in it are any holes or any areas where it hasn't fused bonded, you see like slag or oxide. So that's the part of the physical makeup physical condition on in both fish conditions, yet achieved both. You have to have a low level of imperfection, the lowest level of imperfection. That's what you aimed for, and when you achieve that, you'll achieve optimum mechanical properties. In the joint, we've got two pieces of Austin Itics stainless steel pipe, and it's about that three millimetre wall thickness. All right, damage is about 25 millimetres in the welding profession. The media tragic communicate is that someone with that we call the welder is someone who wells things together. That's what they say. Truth is, human beings don't weld anything, okay? To get these two pieces of authentic stainless steel pipe too well together, end to end the but the made of atoms, theirs iron, nickel and chromium in there, There's a tiny bit of carbon in there for us to get a well know between these two pieces of pipe, we have to get the atoms to bond together. We have to give them energy to be able to do so. Right. Welding. What it's about fundamentally is bringing about thie atoms off the two of the mating parts to bond together. These air welding process is all right and saw the Empire Energy into the atoms so they can bond in metals and their allies. While the metal is solid, theatre bonding is brought about by the movement of the atoms in the crystal structure, but very, very rapidly on the bond by what's called a diffusion mechanism. But most of the welding process is our fusion processes, whereby The way that you deliver the energy with the welding process is that you take the the metal parts from being solid to become liquid, and then you cannot consumable a wire on you. Let it go solid again. Well, the functions that welding process is due. The introduce the consumable saw that the foreman alloy mix with the parent material dick and de gas, the liquid metal. They can refine the liquid metal by forming a slag, which will float to the surface, so it's multi functional. But the the main function of the welding process is to impart the energy to the atom so that you get a bond. You're gettinto bond.

spk_1:   11:25
Okay, so it's not a physical joint around. The metal is it's not a chemical. A piece of it is a atomic bonding off. The metal's going in

spk_0:   11:34
the times that form the form the Allies Atom bonding has been going on ever since the early days of the universe. There are a lot of people say this. Oh, well, you want to keep up with the developments in welding well again. That is not true, because welding, pure and simple, has been going on ever since the universe began. S o the pneumonia Developments in welding where the new developments are in are in the welding process is on DH. The new developments are different ways of imparting the energy into the joint that so you can do it with an electric arc. You do it with an electron beam with a laser. Be or you could do it by just rubbing the parts together. Friction. You could friction well,

spk_1:   12:24
so the techniques may change. But the core mechanism of the bonding remains the same

spk_0:   12:28
as it is ever since that actually the universe began atom bonding. You know, that's what that's what it is, really. That's the That's the truth about what welling is, unfortunately, the perception of welding out there in the light, the general public, not just in this country but all over the world. The perception of welding is is very poor. Ifit's quite insulting, to be honest, because whenever I see you know well, he presented on the TV. I mean, I usually fall off my chair incandescent rage of the nonsense that's coming out. I mean, I I helped some of my clients to imply people who want to be, Ah, welder, Which is that with while profession. You know, any young person listening to this? If you say, for example, taking apprenticeship you a proper apprenticeship at college. You've got a career for life because we'll always need welding. You can't get rid off welding, and you can't automate in the sense that you might be thinking about. I'm not speaking to you about welding as though I'm I'm speaking from an ivory tower on DH. I'm omniscient in knowledge base. And you know I never do anything wrong. You know, I'm in the business, the fraternity of welding, trying to deliver this condition all the time. So I I am not disassociating myself from that all Wells are in perfect. All the people involved, including myself, were not perfect. But to get the job right, you don't need to be perfect.

spk_1:   14:05
You will be the least in perfect.

spk_0:   14:07
Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Because people listen to it. Must appreciate that civilisation depends on welding somewhere on the line. If well, he wasn't carried out correctly. Then civilisation was ceased to function

spk_1:   14:21
in the building. We're in the cars I got here in the bridges I drug

spk_0:   14:24
you have no electricity generated. We couldn't have this interview. Now there's no electricity. You'd have no water supply. Yeah, no gas supply. You have no transportation nor medical products produced. People don't they don't appreciate that on DA it has to change. It's got to change. And, you know, I wrote the fundamental player from welding. There are eight conclusions at the end, which are fundamental to the truth about welding. It establishes that welding is an empirical science on Lee. It is not a pure science. And what that means is is that you acquire knowledge about how to apply welding processes from experimentation with trial and error actions. And what you do is you change parameters of the welding process on trial wells simulation wells, you say you look at these wells and break them open section, then visually, look at them. You might even take a radiograph if if it's suitable to do. And you look at the imperfection level and what you do is is that you change parameters and then see whether what effect it has on the imperfection level. You've increased the um pitch. For example, the power input said the imperfection level goes up. You got to reduce the power levels. So you do this trial and error until you come up with the optimum, you know, set of parameters for the joint on. Also, that has to be the optimum physical application techniques and manoeuvres for the welder. That's what the world does. He doesn't world. He applies the approved. If you like the qualified and tested well procedure, which contains the parameters for the process on the physical manipulation Turney's to get the energy into the joint,

spk_1:   16:14
there is no perfect world technique. There is only the best experienced welder to do the job.

spk_0:   16:18
That's right, Yeah, you work to get the trend to be. The imperfections are being reduced. You'll never producer well with no imperfections. And it's impossible. It's absolutely impossible.

spk_1:   16:37
So with all of this as a quick primer for myself and for the listeners at home, the groundwork of rolling science and its applications, the fundamentals of folding paper available on your Web sites built it all out fairly plainly, too. We should probably turn our attention to the reason that we're talking today your paper in the Journal Off Failure, Analysis and Prevention on what Corsi Alexander Calculon platform to collapse 40 years ago.

spk_0:   16:59
Well, the accepted version of events was the official report by the engineers who were involved in the investigation in the 19 eighties, when he actually happened. I don't know what particular discipline they were in the engineering, but they certainly weren't welling engineering for a start off. That's the published view and in fact, my investigation into what the true cause of failure wass It is based on that report. So that was the official version of the cause of failure. And that's been the case for 40 years. Up until I did my failure analysis based on that report,

spk_1:   17:35
their findings were that there was a break at the D six breaks, one of the legs underneath the platform a joining there where a platform four hydrophones to be dropped down to observe thie quality of the metal around them. There was a fracture there, fatigue, fracture. Agree that once.

spk_0:   17:53
Yeah, there's fatigue fracture that which emanated from a hydra form insert. Presumably this idea form we go inside a tube, which was set through the wall of the brace. The welded joint that was designated for that is the position from which fatigue crack propagated. So for the last 40 years, the official view of it Wasit was a fatigue failure. But in saying that all the saying is that's the mechanism by which it cracked. Failed is not the cause

spk_1:   18:28
were coming to this almost 40 years to the day. Now that we're recording this for a couple of months shy, what led to your review off the report?

spk_0:   18:37
I didn't deliberately target this particular failure started looking into this, it would be probably early 2017 due to my personal circumstances. At the time, I had a bit of time on my hands so that I thought, Well, I'll try and do some research to enhance my You know, my forensic skills in looking but well, the product failures on Daz while going reference what people have done in the past. You know, this is what you do to it. There's a bit of research to improve my skills. That was my motivation. If you d'oh you would end up the Internet would flush up some of the famous failures. On one of them is the Alexander L. Keel and platform collapse. So you you read what people have said about it. The others under Keelan disaster was put in front of my face on the computer. I thought, Well, we'll have a look at this. And so I started to chase down the official report on the first problem you come across is that it's in the Norwegian language so that you you got to try well, were there any translations into English and you find out there are So I read that for about a couple of months and then sent it back, you know? So I based the report on that. So when I was looking at it, I thought, Well, I'm gonna find out. Something needs going. I want to learn a little bit here, you know about forensic analysis of these life structures on. Then, as I started reading into it on bear in mind, you know, the problems off translation in a meaning of where, But, you know, I got the impression that I'm not making derogatory remarks here, But the engineers here, they don't know very much about metallurgy and the comments to make about welling engineer. And it's all it's just nonsense. I mean, just mean anything so this is a bit odd. I went further into the report and I started Teo Trouble. Based on the evidence, I'll do my analysis. Um, it is possible to do an analysis, and I'll mention it later how you do that. So I went into it, and I discovered that the reasons why they came back with these comments about the failure this was from 1982 It says the Phillip Wells were partially cracked in the early history of the platform due to long mechanical strength in the thickness direction off the hydra for mounting tube, combined with poor welding and high residual stresses. So they thought that the steel of the of the braces was weak in the through thing this direction and said it was poor. So they made the sweeping statements that the steel was lost properties in the through thickness direction. Andi also lists that said, those poor welding on has got high residual stresses. What I've just read to you there is just a lot of nonsense, okay, It's just a lot of nonsense because if you take the comment about the loft mechanical properties in the through thickness direction, that's normal for steel. It doesn't mean anything wrong with the steel. In fact, there's nothing wrong with steel on DA. The reason why that you get in the X Y and zed directions in a piece of plate, for example from which the brace was made is because of your forged and raw priest. A raw products got directionality and properties in the If you like the ruling direction of the plate trans verse to the direction of the plate and then in the through sickness. Okay, so the material of different properties in terms of strength, for example, or doc Till ity in each of the X y and Zed properties, Exxon, the while the horizontal properties, the exes would be the rule in direction. The why will be trans verse to the rule in direction on this said, will be through the sickness on. So it is just natural that all these properties in those different direction will be different. There's nothing wrong with the steel. It's all now

spk_1:   22:31
Andi residual stress

spk_0:   22:32
residual stress it well. There's always residual stresses in wells, you know. I mean, that's laughable. That

spk_1:   22:38
if what they said about stresses on the condition were true about the Alexander Kaylen platform. Would that mean that every other world in the world was about to spontaneously erupt into failure?

spk_0:   22:49
The parent material was spontaneously cracked. Explode. You know, that's ridiculous. You know, it's absolutely ridiculous, right? But the reason is is because these people, you have to conclude that they don't know very much about metallurgy or will the usual area. And I made that point in the paper. Is that on the investigation team, they did know imply an experienced welding engineer. You have to be experienced. I mean, I'll have declared to the listeners now. I mean, when I qualified with a PhD in metallurgy, although I was going into the welding industry, I was Noah welding engineer. I was completely green on your own. You quite a bit about welding, but I'm no on experience. Welling engineer. You have to have experience

spk_1:   23:35
other people who handle this review. You do not think they had the academic or professional background to me?

spk_0:   23:41
I don't think either. To be honest, it doesn't It doesn't sound like it, you know, we're coming out with conclusions like that. You know, that just smacks you in the face and coming back to what the alleys under keel and platform is is that it was made in the late seventies and it had been put to use in the North Sea for several years, as I think it was probably used for as a drilling rig, I think, and later on it became an accommodation platform, lots of functions that it had. There's no need to be too preoccupied about its history, because the way I would answer you answer your question is, is you got to view it. Ahs ah, this Alex under keel and platform is a welded fabrication that functions as an oil platform so that what is important of prime importance is welding, welding, welding. And if the welding isn't right, which he wasn't in this case, they will not function properly

spk_1:   24:47
when it comes to the world of product off this platform in all the worlds that went into it in your review, using the time that you had to look at this as a case study in the report, what either contrary evidence did you find or overlooked evidence? How did you start to form your conclusions?

spk_0:   25:05
In other words, when were my suspicions around that things weren't quite right. Yeah. Yeah, Well, if you read the report, it states that what they found when they examine the failed area

spk_1:   25:18
figure to in your paper the fatigue crack propagated partway around the insert and then the brace.

spk_0:   25:23
What they found is is what? When they started to look at the the failed area, they found that there was paint on the fracture surfaces. Okay, this is absolutely crucial to discovering, You know, what was the true cause of the failure? So what we're talking about this is that on a fracture face when the fractures or been up there was paint on the inside,

spk_1:   25:46
which meant that the welding happened after it was painted.

spk_0:   25:48
What that means is the conclusion. The fact that you draw from that is that this filly, well, that they used to put this insert into the into the brace. It was already cracked before the fist time. It went down the slip away into the sea.

spk_1:   26:04
So is broken from the point of manufacture.

spk_0:   26:06
It had fractured. But because of the inappropriate application of the welding process, it was applied where the welder was allowed to do what he felt like okay. Had Norwell procedure on did not qualified himself to work to that procedure to translate into the production environment. When they fabricated that joint, it would have been a hydrogen crack. There had been moisture in the joint. They hadn't possibly bait the electrodes. You have to do a number of things, Teo. Event Hydrogen being sourced into the well deposit. It would have been hydrogen crack on. It was there before the first time it went down the slip away because we found paint on the fracture surfer, which means after the world had been completed, they just painted it over. So it go, you know, for corrosion. Resistance for the steel just painted over it. Never inspected it. There would have been experienced Well, too skilled welders on this. They're skilled welders. After they finish, the world should visually inspect it. You're not rely on anybody else. The first person they inspect should be in the welder. They didn't do it, and neither did any sort of official inspectors do visual inspection, Inspector either said the supervision. You know the supervisor do any. That's fact, because if they had done the inspection that I found the crack so and they would have painted it, Would they? So So that's an absolute that was never recognised. It was mentioned in the official report, but he would never recognise is to its significance.

spk_1:   27:37
So even with the conclusions that you've drawn pretty much staring you in the face based on your experience based on your background, the investigators who went through this didn't identify that as the room

spk_0:   27:47
didn't associate. This is the significance of that finding on did. Only one way paint could get there is well, it's being manufactured in the fabrication shot before the first time it goes down the slip away into the sea, and it was in use for a few years, right as manufactured. That well was cracked right from the start.

spk_1:   28:06
And from then it was just a matter of time until

spk_0:   28:08
much of time. Because fatigue takes time, a matter of time, it would crack would be propagating until it came to a critical size when it would just feel immediately like a brittle failure. You know, a very rapid fill your snappy snap. Yes,

spk_1:   28:24
you've got some monster in our belief in figure three got a cross section of the pipe on DH identified some positions where that snap.

spk_0:   28:32
Yeah, yeah, it could have been from multiple positions, and they've got to a size where the brace would split apart on one part would drop off, but there were still parts of the tube that forms the hydrophone in certain still attached. As you can see that from bigger titties, it's still attached on DH. If you look at these macro sections from parts of the tumour insert that were remained attached, you can see that despite all of these imperfections that you've got there lucky fusion and cracking, you see that in some parts, he dis fused to the parent material on what that means is because it's refused in certain parts of the brace on the on the insert, the fatigue crack that forms and it would fall, probably from the two of the well, like they're seeing that position there. He's got a pathway into the parent material

spk_1:   29:24
on a conspirator.

spk_0:   29:24
It could spread what its fuses become integral with deal the pipe so the breasts and the insert tube are integral of certain parts. So you provide that this pathway for the fatigue crack to propagate on. Obviously, fatigued takes time. It took several years for it to happen, so that raised my suspicions at all. Why haven't the commented about the significance of that? Just trying to establish what is true love. That's all my objective is. They were probably loot that say it looked at that crack there, they would have thought all this going through the full thickness of the brace. It must be weak, but that's just a crack that originated in the world because it's fused. Don't say which is the brace, which is the tube, but in a sense it doesn't matter. But the crack is propagated from the world into the wall thickness of the steel, not the other way around. The reason why that I think they came to the conclusion is, is because the fatigue crack is through the full thickness of the brace wall, right? So they must have always weak then, but it's no. That's just the nature of fatigue. You say they're not metallurgical reminded. You say they're not welding engineering mind. Did you see?

spk_1:   30:40
So for this kind of fatigue, still, strength isn't a fact.

spk_0:   30:43
You could use a steel twice a strong, but it was still fracture through the full thing. You fatigue. It's so powerful. They just They were just all the power. No matter what strength of steel used. Andi, even if you enhance the through thickness strength, you know, it was still overpower it because the stress intensity so great you see it only over oppose it for a short distance, their stops on they moves again on it goes in sync with cycling loading so it would go in sync with wave motion when it wasn't sick.

spk_1:   31:18
It's the exact worst condition for that to be happening in.

spk_0:   31:20
Yes, it is. Yeah. You got cycling loading. Yeah. This is where these people that they don't think about what they're actually going to say, where they say that all the steel was of law, strengthen the three things direction. But you can't just say that you got a reference to the specifications on if the specifications say's that it's to be of a certain value. If the supply steel complies with what the specifications us foreign, the through thickness duration, find it. It doesn't mean it's poor steel. Or

spk_1:   31:50
was that the case further still provided

spk_0:   31:51
this deal was specifications. Yeah, it was perfectly all right. Yeah, nothing wrong with it.

spk_1:   32:03
And in your research into this, did you have any chance to go back to the authors of that initial report and ask how they reached their conclusions?

spk_0:   32:11
I contacted the Norwegian authorities on I just I just asked him for information. I told him what I was doing s I'm just researching into the into the failure. They were quite cooperative. I've since been in contact with it, and I thank them for the information that they gave. I've not heard anything back from them,

spk_1:   32:31
but there were some consequences. Toothy platforms collapse. There were some changes in access to lifeboat regulations because that was a complicating factor on the Alexander killing collapses that people could not get to the light boats in time on DH. That contributed to the loss of life. And that is something that's changed. Whether any changes to welding, practise and regulations following fracture at the killing platform, which might have been I know compounded this wrong lesson. Have you been looking at the wrong end of things professional level for the last 40 years,

spk_0:   33:03
right? Well, the lifeboat issue is not relevant to the this report. It is a separate issue. And at this point I'd like to point out that if this hydrophone insert world had been carried out correctly, I'll talk in more detail later about that. It had been carried out correctly that Weld would not have failed so the structure wouldn't have collapsed. And so you wouldn't have needed the lifeboats if I'm if I'm a sort of make a common here about the way that these investigations are done, they go about it in a way that they just the collect masses of data. There is no following of the evidence approach. For example, let's take the parallel situation where you got crime scene investigators looking at say, Somebody's been killed, right? They don't go around collecting masses of data. The look on all of you to take photographs of the overview. And then they calm down, too, where the person unfortunate person may have been killed safe. It's a murder. You know, the take photographs of the detail before they do anything. It's eight photographs on. Then they concentrate on the evidence that the finding when they looking at the the surroundings and the body to look at that. Some of the findings on DH one day looking at evidence it will point them to go in a certain direction to do something

spk_1:   34:32
to save blood spatter over there on life here. Footprints?

spk_0:   34:35
Yeah. So it will give the evidence will give direction to the investigation. They don't just go about collecting masses of data for the sake of it. It's more directional. Okay, Purposeful. If you like my sort of, like little criticism of the way that they do some of these investigations is that they just collect masses of data such that it masks the truth, get sort of like immersed in three nearly drown in it. You know, all this information

spk_1:   35:04
termed as a signal to noise ratio that the answer is in there, but you can't see it. It's all observation. No investigation

spk_0:   35:11
instead of purposeful forensic analysis,

spk_1:   35:14
well informed expert,

spk_0:   35:15
you know, it's failed a weld, right? Well, that was just being well, did you know who specified that joint? For example, you specified affiliate well, instead of a full penetration. But well, was there a well procedure too? Well, the joint Because all the other giants on the rig where wealth is approved to the world procedures. Why was that a specified in that way? You should never walk up to a giant and start welding with a process without any qualified well procedure. And I'm afraid to say that what goes on in industry today, that's what happens. The reason why the alleys articular platform failed was because a welder applied a welding process to a joint without referencing a qualified intestine. Well, procedure on the fact he didn't qualify himself toe work to that well procedure so he could translate the correct parameters of manipulation technique to the joint. I've said in the report that if this joint this hydrophone joint had been welded correctly, it wouldn't. The rig would not have failed to prove that. So, you know,

spk_1:   36:33
if you could

spk_0:   36:34
go through that, So you know. Okay. Figure to tells all

spk_1:   36:38
we can see the breath of the pipe. We can see the hydrophone insert little box that is still attached. Toothy broken steel.

spk_0:   36:45
Yes, on DH. What's next to it?

spk_1:   36:48
A whole Those punch, I believe that is labelled in figure one as a de watering Val.

spk_0:   36:52
It's a drain hole. Yeah, It's a drain hole that is a set through full penetration joint like the hydrophone is it set right through the wall thickness of the brace. It's fused right through the full wall thickness

spk_1:   37:07
where it's behind

spk_0:   37:07
your eyes. Just a a tiny little Philip Weld, which most of the strength of Ah well, I have phrases for saying that, but I won't know, but it's very weak,

spk_1:   37:20
so it's like putting a sticking plaster refer gaping

spk_0:   37:22
wound, the magical of used chewing gum. Ahs. Much use is really to be honest, but the point is you see is that there are lots of wells. You see them See that in the inside these air, the penetrations inside the tube, all the wells on the brace and the legs of the of the platform. Full thickness wells. Well, the with the well procedure that's been derived by empirical science by the welding fabrication cos the welders have approved themselves to well, to those procedures are done. Tests prove that the competence all right, they're accepted to translate that into production. Now that drain Holwell was done with a full penetration well procedure. So the full sickness with accorded welder right in just the same way. All these other wells on the brace are full penetration, doing with a well seasoned approve welder,

spk_1:   38:11
then inches away.

spk_0:   38:12
The hydrophone world wasn't, the designer said. Oh, it's only a lot of stress, right? Well of a filly. Well, it'll do, right? Say so that for the stresses, a six millimetre Philly well might be good enough. But it's not good enough from a fatigue point of view cycling, loading. And it wasn't done with her well procedure on. But the world made up his own welding conditions now that I have a lot of sympathy for the welder because they gave him a five millimetre diameter electro old and he's trying Teo produce this joint. Now this this hydrophone world, they would cut a hole into the brace and insert the tube. They were going through the drain hole on, then weld in the donor on position like that. Okay, okay, on the outside because you can't rotate these rigs or the gigantic structures yester weld overhead and he's using this size of electrode. It's huge. This this is operating at about £250. There's a lot of, well, metal going across there at 1600 degrees C. So when he's in the overhead position, he's fighting to stop that well, metal falling on him and killing him.

spk_1:   39:28
Highly ideal working conditions?

spk_0:   39:29
No, and you can see that he's fighting the well pool. You can see that he's going to wipe that you to keep it in position. Is fighting all the time to stop it from falling down? You see all these ripples, not multiple wells. They are just scrubbing there, just weaving all the time. I'm fortunate into the joint now. The other thing is, is that because this is so such allies diameter compared to what it should be, you can't get in the corner, you can't get in the corners are not satisfactory. Refused on. The other thing is, he's pointing in the wrong direction, is welling into one tube wall and not the other leaving infused areas. So he's leaving imperfections, which are of a very defective nature,

spk_1:   40:14
and this could have been avoided with

spk_0:   40:16
it. A well procedure the world proceeding would have said the well will go right through the full thickness. In other words, it would look like that now which is figure five. You say it would've been through the full thickness. This one is far too like a diameter for an overhead. Well, the maximum damage should be four, not five millimetres on its tip is to provide access into the wealth you have access to get near to the para metal surfaces. Gonna get there. Everything was ad hoc on. Just felt the out of control.

spk_1:   40:50
That's the moment that this failure began.

spk_0:   40:53
Yeah, and we'll just going back to this, You see, on boat perception of welding, you see the designers who would've setubal just to a six millimetre Philip world and use a big rod. He's got no perception of welding under consequences doing it wrong because next to it is the drainer. It's only 270 millimetres away, its full penetration doing with a well procedure with accorded welder. You know, the one who approved to work to the procedure. So why be abandoned on the same item? That's philosophy.

spk_1:   41:24
It's gonna be within eyeshot Is he's working on the hydrophone vent.

spk_0:   41:27
The joint has to be completed the same as the drain. All Yeah hasta be say for example, you have two wounds on your arm, separated by, say, a short distance, 100 millimetres or something like that on one of the wounds. You clean it, adjusting on it, and you're the one you leave to collect all infection. You can think off. You don't bother. All right, So what's going to happen? You treated one would correctly so you would survive and you won't get sepsis or something like that was the one. I'll give you sepsis and kill you. But it's on the same arm. The same world is on the same brace.

spk_1:   42:04
We start off with this conversation, the full admittance that I know nothing about. Welding that does seem quite obvious.

spk_0:   42:10
Yeah, boat in other disciplines outside of welding engineering is their perception correct? And the answer is no. That should worry you, and it should worry the layman as well. If I may, I'd like to pay some compliments to the North Sea oil and gas industry and all people involved in making the the oil rigs and everything. Ah, lot of the structures were made in this country. There's a big facility in Scotland when the North Sea oil industry to cough, which was a late seventies in the steals of construction. There were some really some magnificent developments in the quality of steals. It was improving all the time. So they're to be congratulated on that on people who manufactured well, consumables, which would be compatible with these improve quality steals. They've done a tremendous job as well, and I want to congratulate them. And hopefully they think coming from some delight myself. It's, you know, it's a compliment and I really mean that, you know, and saw that people involved in the industry at the time they did some wonderful things and contributed Tio no health and safety on the rigs. The weakness is, if you don't develop your well procedures to develop optimum properties, that's with the lowest level of imperfection in the material and physical condition, right? You won't realise the benefits off improved steel quality and its properties on the well consumables, because to get it you have to qualify well procedure. The industry did promote that on some of the oil rigs that were built at the time. The rig probably cost half a 1,000,000,000 to a $1,000,000,000 say, but the well procedure qualification on the qualification of the welders on all the simulation joint testing that was involved probably came to say, $1,005,200 just to do that, to get your technology to apply, to build the rigs. So they did all this pioneering work to do it without a well procedure or approved welders was anathema. And yet they won't behave that way what it is, if this incorrect perception of what welding is, people outside of the welding engineer and discipline got to admit they know nothing about it. They don't know the truth about welding. This should find out. They should ask some delight myself. But there are people within the welding discipline you don't understand. I've interviewed a lot, sock or well, the engineers on DH. All it is is read the information. You know, they could read my paper on the fundamentals of welding, and it started. There's this resistance to the truth about welding. It's, um it's amazing, and that's why one of the reasons why is rotten to the core Now. If we recognise that, then we've got a chance of going in the right direction and wait. There should be, nor welding carried out without people doing there empirical science. Or you can call it welding development to a specifications, and you approve you well just to work with those specifications. No, to justify that statement. There still is a lot of welding carried out by welders, especially where they don't reference anything. They just go on, make up their own welding conditions that still goes on. Give them the Jew. The international welling authorities are bringing out specifications for all sorts of products, not just oil rigs, et cetera. Are pressure vessels. Whatever all welded structures where you should derive by empirical science are welding procedure. On an example of this is a speck called E N 10 90. That's a philosophy for welding carbon steel structures and aluminium alloys. Tortures, which they're carrying a load of some sorts. You see what it's saying is, is that you shouldn't manufacture. These were by the world is left alone to make up his own welding conditions because us it's a disaster waiting to happen. The lesson that should be a learn says, is that nor welding should say place without a well procedure and approved welder. Non. Not even if you're doing patchwork on your mortar car body. So you're building a new classic car on. You have to replace parts of the body work and you're doing little stitch wells with the Magan. Even that you should do derive a well procedure. It's no hardship. You do some trial and error and you find you find out the parameters that you dial into your welding set that delivered the correct fusion for the joint. And you can do a little functional test to prove that the joint strong enough you could strip Soto the car body plate, which is only about two mil thick, and you could do then tests and all sorts to prove it. And then when you've done all that, you stick to it. So you got some assurance that the pact she put into your mortar vehicle it won't drop off.

spk_1:   47:16
Nothing Waste time like trying to save time.

spk_0:   47:18
Yeah, so that's the lesson that should be learned. Okay, is best illustrated by the Japanese sword makers, the manufacture, the nor the famous summer. I saw its, you know, the sword makers they developed and work to a set secrets of actions procedure, right? It's very strict, almost ritualised. Yeah, and it takes weeks to produce a forge Welded summer. I saw it. You don't forge welded sword without a procedure. You stick to the procedure. The students of the sword maker, right? He learns parrot fashion if you like. The procedure on the nice thing about it is this. That when you watch these sword makers still doing it today is that they make sort of like religious statements at the end of it. That's to be commended for that because that reinforces the discipline of the procedure so that producing a deriving a well procedure is fundamental to weld. It was discovered centuries ago. So why aren't we doing it now? If you're a fly on the wall, it's some of the meetings I've been with company. You'd be very worried.

spk_1:   48:25
Oh, I'm already worried. I'm worried right now. I'm gonna be worried every mile of the drive home.

spk_0:   48:30
Unfortunately, you should bay. But don't forget. You know, people listening to this interview is I'm not disassociating myself from these problems of these faults. I'm in the fraternity of welding. I'm at fault just like anybody else. But I'm trying to do it better.

spk_1:   48:47
Well, that does raise a question off the lessons that have been taken from the kill in disaster from the platform collapse. It was only a few weeks later that the sister platform I believe it's the Heinrich Ibsen underwent some catastrophic failure as well. There that did manage to get replaced. Image toe floated up, something burst. Is it likely that people have missed the same mistake in other work since

spk_0:   49:09
in the welding fabrication industry? Our people over outside of the profession but actually deal with it? So you've got mechanical engineers and designers working in a welding fabricator. I think it's fair to say what they would know about welding would be is a CZ, Much as you could get on a postage stamp, they perceive that was nothing to welding. I'm sorry about the dough and in cos they have a lot of influence, whereas in a welding fabrication company, the most important discipline is Willie fabrication. It's more important than the chief executive officer's job, because if you don't get the welding correct, you have nothing to sell or you'll sell something that won't function properly and, God forbid, might kill somebody, as

spk_1:   50:00
we mentioned earlier, everything at some point in the modern world has been welded, it seems

spk_0:   50:05
yes or welding is associated with something that you could have a component with, nor weld on it. What to get to that component? You'd be lying on a well somewhere in the manufacturing route in the production line, for example. So I feel like I'm making a fairly controversial statement. But it's true on the behaviour off people in the world in fabrication industry, it's appalling. Could we say that it's improved since the Alexander Keel and platform? And the answer is no, it's got worse. It's worse.

spk_1:   50:36
That is not the answer I hope to hear.

spk_0:   50:38
I'm not sort of blow may on trumpet here, but I doubt whether people would have the same amount of appropriate experience that I have. There's nothing wrong with, say, experience, welding, engineer, working for ah one company for a long time. I respect that, but he wants off the experience off what other companies are doing. I've audited welding, audited most of the UK fabricators in this country because I had to do that when I was working the nuclear industry because we're procuring well the fabrication products for reprocessing plant so I think I've got some sort of light authority to say as to what's wrong In the willing industry, things are not what they should pay. It's wrong to the core. It is. It's wrong to the core and there are people meddling in welling engineering. You know nothing about it. They get people to do things that are ultimately turned out to be a very dangerous and people get hurt on DA. Unfortunately, in some situations people have lost their lives on DH. I have to say that the loss of life on there was unnecessary. I'm sorry to

spk_1:   51:47
say Well, there are still people affected by that disaster living today there are still families. Were people who did make it out of there alive. If they listen to this 40 years on, what would you want them to know from your research?

spk_0:   52:08
I would think over the last 40 years the true cause of the failure has not been been revealed. I've done that. All that has been sort of revealed is that the mechanism of failure was by fatigue. But the mechanism is not the true calls for me. Because if you addressed what the true cause wass in other ways. Well, procedures through welders on the appropriate joint specified. If you did that, then it wouldn't have failed over there. People associated with those people, unfortunately, lost their lives. Is that all they would know is that the mechanism of failure they wouldn't know the true cause of the failure if there are people who related to those people lost their lives is I think, that they're entitled to know what the true cause of the failure wass, whereas at the moment before my paper was issued, they didn't know there's an article from the Welding Institute. There will be something. Just before my paper was published, there's a statement in here which I'll just read out. It says Although material properties on welding quality played a significant part in this disaster rig design, it was also a critical factor. Whoever has written that I don't think they realise what they're communicating here because they seem to be distracting, saying it's a design fault, you see, didn't you read that there was paint on the fragile surfaces after the failure, This brace failure, the one of the legs fell off on DH as far as I can understand it from the design point of view. And I'm not a design engineer. But when this leg fell off the remaining structure, its centre of gravity was outside this structure. So it it turned over

spk_1:   53:54
five legged structure. One of the leg goes, it toppled.

spk_0:   53:57
Yes, So you could say that's a design fault. But if it had been welded correctly, you would never have known enough when they were designed in this rig in the first place. If they would have known well, if the leg falls are feel turnover, they would never made that rig that way. Anyway. One of the conclusions you can draw from that is that all designs are false in them. But you don't necessarily know what they are until something happens to say that rig design was a critical factor. What they're saying is, no, we'll change the design that's going to wave a magic wand. It we'll live happily ever after now, and we won't get any more failure. But you knew design is a welded structure, and if you weld it justus badly, you're going to get the same problems, aren't you? This guy from the wedding is what's his motive for saying this All right, which we change the design according to what you say. We don't address the welding. It's a waste of time saying in that

spk_1:   54:55
it's like a fuel car's engine on fire and someone says will put more wheels on it.

spk_0:   54:59
Yeah, so there's not realised. The magnitude of what he's saying is distracting people from identifying it was due to the welding was applied out of control. In my paper, I've said that the true cause of the failure wass something wrong with the design criteria on DH poor application of the welding processes. But the design criteria fault is not due to stress calculations. It's due to the allocation of inspection for the welded joints. That was incorrect. So they didn't specify a full penetration joint they didn't specify. You gotta use well, besieges on. You got to use a welder that's approved to those well procedures on. You've got to carry out a visual inspection, which would include something like a penitence inspection or magnetic particle. The inspection carried out whatsoever. That's where the design criteria failure was. It wasn't a stress couch. It was due to the welding fabrication philosophy that you apply. And then the other part wass in practise. He was carried out with the welder, essentially making up his own building conditions with the inevitable result. So why is this guy destruction you away from that? So you know, if you change the design, everything's fine now it asked the conclusions he can come to. And although he can identify the significance ofthe paint on a fracture surface, why produced this? Lots of misleading gobbledygook. Well, I'm getting through to, you know, giving you a taste of what the reality is like in the welding fabrication industry on DH. I want to state now in this interview, I am not disassociating myself from fault. I'm a member of the welding fraternity on DH. The fact that things are not right I'm involved in that I'm at fault. But all my working life, I'm tryingto are battling against people Do it wrong. I'm trying to get people to do it right with my clients, with all credit to them. Some of them are on my website there. They've responded to what I've said and they've have improved willing technology on they produced, you know, items which are of very law imperfection level, you know, they're fabulous product on DH. They will give their service life without problems, you know, to nearly 20% as you can get it.

spk_1:   57:14
And it makes sense that you'd want tohave the longest, most hard wearing product that you can make when it comes to things like oil rigs. When it comes to any kind of architecture where human life could be on the line, you wouldn't want to settle for less.

spk_0:   57:39
I would say that the families of those people who were affected and er unfortunately killed on the rig At least you should be told what the true causes Now they may not have access to O. R know about this paper. They may not know that they may not know anything. I think they're entitled to know the true cause. And then after that, I I can't do anything. But I would speak to them. If they wanted me to speak to them, I would speak to them. And I hope that you know, one of the purposes of this interview and the information would get to these people, you know, they would they would at least read the report on DA. You know the truth.

spk_1:   58:17
If people do want to contact you directly or get any of the papers that you have published, where would be the best way for them to get a hold of you?

spk_0:   58:25
Go on to my new website, E J France Consulting. My email address is on there on access to the papers. You, Khun, you condone or those free of charge? Yeah, there's no problem there. I'll speak to anybody that listens to this. Ah, this podcast. Anybody from outside the profession or within the profession?

spk_1:   58:45
Dr. Franz, Thank you so much for your time. Pleasure. Thank you. Um