Flow assurance including thermal insulation are critical elements in the design and operation of flowlines and risers in deep waters due to a combination of high temperatures, high pressures and economic drivers for high availability. The paper will discuss a suitable polypropylene insulation system that can meet these requirements. The mechanical and thermal properties of polymer foams vary as a function of foam density. Higher density normally means better mechanical properties and reduced density improves insulation capacity. This is also true in the case of foams for subsea applications, where the increased hydrostatic head associated with deeper waters calls for higher compressive strength and better creep properties of the PP-foam. Higher compressive strength also improves creep characteristics and can be attributed to higher polymer stiffness and the final foam structure. Combining a stiff linear copolymer polypropylene (PP) with a branched homopolymer PP, the benefits of high melt strength and high melt elongation result in excellent foam quality, characterised by evenly distributed bubbles with a closed cell bubble structure in the pipe foam layer. This leads to both higher compressive strength and improved creep resistance. At the same time, this novel combination of polypropylene technology retains tensile properties and impact resistance. The following conclusions can be drawn: 1. The PP system described in this paper was selected for the most extreme combination of water depth and temperature (2200 meter/132 deg. C) as insulation material in the GoM. 2. With the use of closed cell foam and appropriate limit state design methodology, PP foam can be used down to water depths of around 2000 meters. 3. Careful consideration must be taken when selecting proper matrix candidates for syntactic PP. 4. The technology and design approach described herein can be further extended into shallow water applications. 5. Economics are attractive for a system composed of a syntactic and closed cell foam as described in this paper, relative to other systems.


    Zugriff

    Zugriff über TIB

    Verfügbarkeit in meiner Bibliothek prüfen

    Bestellung bei Subito €


    Exportieren, teilen und zitieren



    Titel :

    High performance polypropylene thermal insulation for high temperature and deep water applications


    Beteiligte:
    Boye Hansen, A. (Autor:in) / Jackson, A. (Autor:in)


    Erscheinungsdatum :

    2005


    Format / Umfang :

    8 Seiten, 4 Bilder, 3 Tabellen, 3 Quellen



    Medientyp :

    Aufsatz (Konferenz)


    Format :

    Print


    Sprache :

    Englisch




    Lightweight High-Temperature Thermal Insulation

    Wagner, W. R. / Fasheh, J. I. | NTRS | 1985



    Railway applications of high-temperature insulation

    Moses, G.L. | Engineering Index Backfile | 1944


    Fiber Reinforced Silica Aerogel Composites: Thermal Insulation for High-Temperature Applications

    Fomitchev, D. V. / Trifu, R. / Gould, G. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2004


    Review of High-Temperature Thermal Insulation Materials

    Tychanicz-Kwiecień, Maria / Wilk, Joanna / Gil, Paweł | AIAA | 2018