Skip to main content
DeutschDE
European Commission logo print header

Deepwater flowline and riser insulation systems (DEFRIS)

Ziel

Objectives and problems to be solved: The project aims to solve the technological needs associated with subsea pipe insulation in future deep water and old marginal oil wells. Experience of the performance of insulation materials in such conditions is limited; few systems have been used beyond depths of 1000m while future developments are planned to 2000m and beyond. These increasing well depths bring with them corresponding increases in the lengths of flow lines which again demands efficient and long term effectiveness of the insulating system in order to prevent cooling of the fluids. Improved functionality over the life of the system will extend the productivity of marginal wells while reducing the requirement for expensive work over treatments, necessary to prevent the formation of hydrate plugs and wax deposits. Description of work: The objectives are to develop new materials/systems, new evaluation methods and new software to provide economical, validated deepwater pipe and riser insulation systems. The concept introduced in this project is that of the material system - a combination of materials, (including recycled materials, new processing methods and novel concepts of materials) to meet the insulation and mechanical performance of this service. An effective and representative screening test regime will also be developed to screen these material systems. Such tests will allow long-term service life to be predicted and improve system performance. Current tests are considered inadequate by the industry and those developed as a result of this project will be presented to the relevant international committees as draft standard protocols. Performance related testing will address the long-term durability of the coatings allowing accurate life-cycle prediction with improved performance. Prediction of the dynamics of deepwater and ultra-deepwater riser systems is also a crucial part of the design process. The necessary tools do not exist. The project will therefore, also, develop state of the art design software for the systems addressing the effects of the additional insulation coating on the dynamic stiffness and fatigue properties of the pipes while providing improved thermal assurance modelling software. This software will act on a global level modelling the pipe or riser and the local level modelling heat loss/retention. At the mid-term evaluation point, the project will move to full-scale validation, if successful to that point. The complete insulated pipes will be tested full scale and then be installed for trials to validate the procedures and materials developed. On successful termination of the project a demonstration project will be planned putting the tools from this project in to service. Expected results and exploitation plan: The mix of partners in combination with a well-represented end user group provides a balanced representation throughout the supply chain and a spread across the EU community. This partnership allows clear definitions of the individual exploitation routes. Each of the partners is a Trans-European organization with customers, clients or manufacturing facilities throughout Europe allowing further and wider EU exploitation. The work is to be further exploited through dissemination of the test techniques through standardization and regulatory authorities meeting EU Social Objectives. The partners can further disseminate throughout technical conferences, committees and European Operators Associations. These activities show this project to have significant added value to the EU community.
The pipe coating manufacturer Thermotite has successfully developed/refined a foamed polypropylene pipe insulation system for Higher-duty applications, with immediate results in terms of commercial sales to Norwegian and Gulf of Mexico field projects. This as a result of close collaboration with the material supplier Borealis. MERL has supported this work by means of further development of test methods and data analysis for the performance testing of foamed insulation materials, including the provision of a thermal test facility using samples from representative manufacturing processes (rather than specially prepared laboratory samples.

Mechanical test data provided by MERL has allowed the installation contractor Technip-Coflexip to validate reelay methods for the new insulation system; studied with the aid of finite element analysis (FEA) and validated by full-scale bending tests. MCS has developed new design tools for the design and analysis of pipeline insulation systems for subsea applications. This software tool has been named DISDANS (Deepwater Insulation Systems - Design and Analysis). A verification analysis has been performed whereby the results produced by DISDANS have been validated using FE analyses and results of simulated service tests.

Wissenschaftliches Gebiet

Programm/Programme

Thema/Themen

Aufforderung zur Vorschlagseinreichung

Data not available

Finanzierungsplan

CSC - Cost-sharing contracts

Koordinator

MATERIALS ENGINEERING RESEARCH LABORATORY LTD.
EU-Beitrag
Keine Daten
Adresse
Tanworth Road, 89/91
SG13 7DG HERTFORD
Vereinigtes Königreich

Auf der Karte ansehen
Links
Gesamtkosten
Keine Daten

Beteiligte (4)

Diese Seite teilen

Herunterladen

Letzte Aktualisierung: 28 Juli 2005

Mein Booklet

Permalink: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/ENK6-CT-2000-00098/de

European Union, 2024