Sealing Performance and Optimization of a Subsea Pipeline Mechanical Connector

Researchers seldom study the optimum design of a mechanical connector for subsea oil-gas pipeline based upon the sealing performance. An optimal design method of a novel subsea pipeline mechanical connector is presented. By analyzing the static metal sealing mechanism, the critical condition of the sealing performance is established for this connector and the formulation method of the contact pressure on the sealing surface is created. By the method the minimum mean contact pressure of the 8.625 inch connector is calculated as 361 MPa, which is the constraint condition in the optimum design of connector.The finite element model is created in ANSYS Parametric Design Language(APDL) and the structure is optimized by the zero-order method, with variance of contact pressure as the objective function, and mean contact pressures and plastic strains as constraint variables. The optimization shows that variances of contact pressure on two sealing surfaces decrease by 72.41% and 89.33%, respectively, and mean contact pressures increase by 31.18% and 52.84%, respectively. The comparison of the optimal connectors and non-optimal connectors in the water pressure experiments and bending experiments shows that the sealing ability of optimized connectors is much higher than the rated pressure of 4.5 MPa, and the optimal connectors don’t leak under the bending moment of 52.2 kN·m.This research provides the formulation to solve contact pressure on the sealing surface and a structure optimization method to design the connectors with various dimensions.

Metal Sealing Performance of Subsea X-tree Wellhead Connector Sealer

The metal sealing performance of subsea X-tree wellhead connectors is crucial for the safety and reliability of subsea X-trees. In order to establish the theoretical relation between metal sealing ring＇s contact stress and its structural parameters and working pressure, a mechanical analysis method for double-cone sealing of high pressure vessels is applied in analyzing the metal sealing ring under the condition of preload and operation. As a result, the formula of the unit sealing load for the metal sealing ring under operation with residual preload is shown in this paper, which ensures that the metal sealing ring has an excellent sealing effect and can prevent the metal sealing ring from yielding. Besides, while analyzing the sealing process of the metal sealing ring, the change rule of contact stress and working pressure is concluded here, putting forward that the structural parameters of the metal sealing ring are the major factors affecting the change rule. Finally, the analytical solution through theoretical analysis is compared with the simulation result through finite element analysis in a force feedback experiment, and both are consistent with each other, which fully verifies for the design and calculation theory on metal sealing ring＇s contact stress and its structural parameters and working pressure deduced in this paper. The proposed research will be treated as an applicable theory guiding the design of metal seal for subsea X-tree wellhead connectors.