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

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.