Today’s energy market landscape is complex to navigate. All players across the energy industry, including hard-to-abate sectors, need to create and implement safe and future-proof decarbonization pathways. By combining deep industrial expertise with test capabilities, DNV’s Technology Centres help our customers to understand and navigate the complexity of decarbonizing with trust. We provide assurance by qualifying and applying innovative technologies and new ways of working in a safe, cost-effective, and sustainable way.
DNV’s Technology Centre in Oslo is fully equipped to support the energy industry with wide-ranging expertise and experience. From small valve analysis to full-scale testing, the technology centre is dedicated to advancing industries like wind, CCS, hydrogen, maritime, and oil and gas with a team of 80 experts and our 1800-person cross-industry workforce. Join us as we delve into the Technology Centre’s pioneering history and extensive capabilities.
70 years of advancing innovation
Fatigue testing in the DNV laboratory in Oslo in 1966. Here static and dynamic loads up to 100t could be applied
Beginning as a small lab in the DNV headquarters’ basement in 1954, the Technology Centre has a long history of active research and basing problem solving on science rather than tradition. It began with an industry need for new materials and testing methods to improve the performance of modern ships, and so DNV had to master a wide range of materials and fabrication processes to set the right standards and controls. Since then, DNV has helped the industry solve innumerable challenges and the Technology Centre in Oslo has grown into a world-leading facility.
Today, the centre’s expertise covers a wide range of industries, applications and technology service domains. It provides global insights and local expertise for safer, smarter and greener operations, whether analysing the failure of tiny valves, performing full-scale validation tests to a load of 3,600 tonnes, or collecting organisms from the arctic seabed.
The Technology Centre’s core services are technology qualification, failure investigation and environmental monitoring of complex systems, structures and assets across the offshore industries. Its expertise spans a range of domains such as qualification of structural solutions, failure investigation, materials technology, structural integrity, polymer materials and composites, and sampling and analysis of marine fauna.
“The closeness of experts and engineers from various fields and domains, such as pipelines, risers, offshore concrete and steel structures, ships and offshore units, enables us to easily integrate testing with multidisciplinary projects to provide wide-ranging support and expertise to our customers. We not only deliver laboratory and testing services as a standalone and tailored offering, but also often participate in joint industry and advisory projects to help drive the industry forward,” said Gustav Heiberg, Global Laboratories Practice Lead.
Learn more about DNV's Technology Centre in Oslo
Leveraging real-world lessons
Real-world experiences offer lessons that can't be matched in theory. DNV’s world-wide network of Technology Centres creates a vital setting for experiential learning, closely tied to the advancement of analytical methods. In DNV’s labs, our experts can calibrate and validate design criteria, and failure investigations help improve standards. When failures occur, they reveal gaps in codes or standards, prompting us to revise practices, often through new joint industry projects (JIPs) collaborating with other industry leaders.
DNV has established over 170 industry standards and recommended practices, while consistently engaging in around 30 JIPs. Observing how components and systems behave and malfunction under various scenarios provides invaluable knowledge. This contributes to DNV's recognition for its extensive technical and material knowledge.
The five core services of the Technology Centre in Oslo
The Technology Centre leverages a wide range of skills and knowledge in different areas of application and technology service:
We utilise this blend of skills and knowledge alongside system expertise, advanced finite element analysis, and specialised laboratory facilities.
1. Technology qualification
The Technology Centre in Oslo qualifies technologies with integrated project teams that include system experts from pipelines, wind, maritime, and offshore structures. The state-of-the-art facilities and custom test rigs support this process.
Using a risk-based approach, DNV’s experts identify potential failure modes and mechanisms early, ensuring compliance with current standards and certifications. When existing rules are insufficient, DNV offers technology qualification as an additional service, guided by our widely accepted recommended practice, DNV-RP-A203.
Lab engineer monitoring a test
The laboratory develops custom test rigs to evaluate structural solutions, applying loads up to 700 tons and cycling structures for millions of load cycles. By qualifying new solutions, it is possible to reduce costs for wind turbines and extend the life of existing systems, like mooring solutions.
Material performance is critical in these qualifications, requiring exposure to environments such as seawater and cathodic protection, alongside various loads. Key areas include fatigue, hydrogen embrittlement, fracture mechanics, and polymers.
Advanced instrumentation and digital technologies are employed in each test, including 3D scanning, digital image correlation, load and strain measurements, acoustic emission, and direct current potential drop. The Technology Centre’s control systems handle large loads with millimetre precision and parts-per-billion (ppb) environmental control.
2. Failure investigation
Discussion on microstructures in the failure investigation lab
DNV’s laboratory has more than 50 years of experience in failure investigations and technical root cause assessments and has completed more than 600 investigations since 2006. With expert system knowledge in ship machinery, subsea, pipelines and structures, DNV’s experts are highly skilled at handling failure analysis and helping our customers make smart choices on saving and examining evidence. Failure investigation expertise is the key to finding out what went wrong, how to get back on track and how to prevent future problems. These investigations typically include data collection, field examination, chemical analysis, metallographic examinations, hardness measurements, mechanical testing, and microscopy.
3. Materials technology
With the energy transition as a driving force, DNV has taken on new challenges with the industry in offshore wind, hydrogen and CCS. By leveraging our deep knowledge and utilising our long legacy in offshore applications, DNV proudly supports the industry on the path towards net zero. For the Technology Centre’s materials lab, it's not just about knowing how materials perform, but also setting requirements that can go into standards that make a difference for projects. The lab works with a range of materials in different industries from structural steel, stainless materials, composites, and polymers. By applying our materials expertise in areas like corrosion, welding fracture mechanics, metallurgy, fatigue, non-destructive testing to additive manufacturing, we help the continuous development of industry technology.
DNV’s materials technology lab focuses on:
Lab engineer setting up a tensile test
Extending the lifetime of existing equipment through lifetime extension analysis
Helping customers achieve superior quality for their CAPEX projects
Testing new technologies.
The lab is one of the foremost competence centres globally in terms of fatigue, fracture and structural integrity, known for wide-ranging expertise in components like mooring devices, large diameter bolts, grouted connections, and advancements in materials.
4. Polymer materials and composites
DNV’s Technology Centre in Oslo has a leading position in qualifying polymer and composite solutions for the most demanding applications. As pioneers within this area, the centre has played a key role in introducing synthetic fibre ropes for mooring or thermoplastic composite pipes for risers and pipelines. It has required a systematic qualification effort over many years to build trust in this domain.
We support customers with:
Visual examination in the failure investigation lab
Tips on how to use composite in energy transition projects like hydrogen and CCS infrastructure and offshore wind
Material analysis (micro- and macro-examination) of elastomer and thermoplastic seals
Structural analysis and simulations of bonded joints and bonded repair of steel structures following DNV-RP-C301
Technology approval of thermoplastic composite pipes, flexible risers, pressure vessels and other composites components/structures following DNV-RP-A203
Failure analysis and root cause investigation of GRP pipeline, high speed craft, wind turbine blade etc.
On-site inspection of composite pipelines, wind turbine blades, high speed craft, etc.
Advice on concept development, feasibility studies and risk assessments, and training.
5. Biodiversity and environmental monitoring
The environmental laboratory offers certified sampling and analysis of seabed habitats and identification of marine species to support in biodiversity management and environmental performance monitoring. DNV’s experts perform accredited analyses of marine macrofauna, assess the impact on nature, and have ISO 17025 accreditation with over three decades of experience in baseline and environmental monitoring surveys. In sensitive regions, remotely operated vehicles are employed to document seabed structures and habitats, with data systematically recorded on GIS maps.
DNV’s environmental laboratory services include:
Sea star sample colored blue under the microscope
Professional environmental evaluations and guidance by experienced marine biologists
Sediment sampling, biological analysis, and assessment
Mapping and monitoring environments in shallow waters
Visual mapping using our own ROV and environmental monitoring
Identification of macrofauna species (taxonomy)
Sampling of plankton, fish eggs, and larvae
Chemical analysis through trusted partner laboratories
Collection and analysis of oceanographic data
Assessment of water conditions and monitoring of water quality (sampling and sensor-based).
"This year marks a rare and special occasion for us at DNV, as we celebrate not one, but two milestones: our 160 years of history, and our 70-year legacy of DNV's Technology Centre in Oslo. We’re proud to see the important role we have played in supporting industry development throughout the years, and we can't wait to see what the future holds,” Gustav concluded.
Some of the tools and equipment we use
Testing of large-scale structures and components in simulated service conditions (multi-axial loading, temperature, pressure, cathodic protection, etc.)
Advanced controlling and measurement equipment including optical strain measurements and laser scanning enabling calibration with finite element analysis
World-leading fatigue and fracture mechanics expertise and testing, including chains and mooring components, resonance fatigue testing of pipes and fibre ropes
Mechanical and environmental testing of metallic materials, thermoplastics, elastomers, fibre-reinforced plastics, concrete, fibre ropes, etc from -196°C to +350°C
Dynamic tension/compression testing from 1kN up to 7500kN
DNV's environmental laboratory services support biodiversity management through accredited sampling and analysis of seabed habitats and species, and monitoring of environmental performance.
DNV is actively pursuing joint innovation and industry projects and partnerships with academia and businesses in areas such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and autonomous systems as well as for new or refined technical solutions.
