Digital healthcare engineering for aging offshore pipelines: a state-of-the-art review

Offshore pipelines face severe environmental and operational challenges, leading to deterioration issues like corrosion and fatigue cracking. Such degradation risks casualties, property damage, and marine pollution, underscoring the need for robust lifetime healthcare. Digital healthcare engineering (DHE) systems offer a proactive approach to managing these risks through digital twins, AI, and advanced communication technologies. DHE systems include five key modules: (1) on-site health monitoring, (2) data transmission to analytics centers, (3) digital twin-based data analytics, (4) AI-based diagnosis and recommendations, and (5) predictive health assessments for maintenance. Sensor-equipped devices measure pipeline conditions onsite, with LEO satellites supporting real-time data transfer. AI models enable diagnosis and maintenance predictions based on accumulated health data and similar environmental cases. This paper aims to review recent advances and challenges in DHE systems, with a particular focus on their application to aging offshore pipelines, and to explore practical solutions for these challenges.