Title: Thermal design of multi-layered composite pipelines for deep water oil and gas production

Authors: Jian Su; Djane R. Cerqueira; Su-Zhen Wang

Addresses: Nuclear Engineering Program, COPPE, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. ' Nuclear Engineering Program, COPPE, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. ' College of Automation Engineering, Qingdao Technological University, Qingdao 266520, China

Abstract: This paper addresses the technological challenges in the thermal design of multi-layer composite pipelines for offshore production of oil and gas in deep waters. An overview is provided for the flow assurance requirements, the thermal insulation systems and active heating of pipelines. A basic framework of thermal design is presented that consists of steady-state and transient heat-transfer analysis of multi-layered composite pipelines. Under some simplifying hypotheses, the thermal profile of the produced fluid along the pipeline is given by an analytical solution. Transient heat-transfer during a cold-down of a typical pipeline for deep water oil and gas production is simulated by numerical solution of conjugate heat-transfer in the solid and energy transport in the fluid.

Keywords: active heating; flow assurance; offshore systems; pipelines; thermal design; thermal insulation; composite pipelines; deep water production; oil and gas production; heat transfer.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAT.2012.046311

International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology, 2012 Vol.43 No.3, pp.248 - 259

Published online: 03 Apr 2012 *

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