Petrobas-31 Flare Boom

The flare boom installed on Petrobas-31, a former tanker converted into a floating production, storage and offloading unit, is an example of a flare boom with a triangular cross section. It is a 70-m-long free-standing structure, weighing slightly over 100 t. Long slender flare booms with triangular cross sections have become a very common sight on large offshore production installations. Looking at them one might think that they are neat, well-defined structures with well-defined loads, whose design must be quite straightforward. This paper, based on the problems faced during the design and installation of a real example, is intended to show just how unrealistic that thought can be.