Novel concepts of mechanical technology for gas recovery from marine hydrate reservoir

According to the characteristics of marine natural gas hydrate,China has proposed the solid-state fluidization exploitation technology or natural gas hydrate,with subsea exploitation being key to the commercial recovery of gas.In this paper,two new integrated tools are proposed for breaking and collecting natural gas hydrate,and their working principles and steps are illustrated.Finite element analysis,three-dimensional modeling,and simulations were conducted for both exploitation tools to verify their technological feasibility.The results show that the two exploitation tools can effectively improve the efficiency of hydrate exploitation and ensure the stability of the hydrate reservoir.This provides a reference for further research on the solid-state fluidization exploitation technology of marine gas hydrates.

An Experimental Study on the Interaction between Hydrate Formation and Wax Precipitation in Waxy Oil-in-Water Emulsions

The coupled formation of wax crystals and hydrates is a critical issue for the safety of deep-sea oil and gas exploration and subsea transport pipeline flow.Therefore,this paper conducts an experimental study on the characteristics of methane hydrate formation in a water-in-oil(W/O)system with different wax crystal contents and explores the influence of different initial experimental pressures on the induction period and maximum rate of hydrate formation.The wavelet function was introduced to process the reaction rate and calculate the maximum speed of hydrate formation.Notably,the higher the pressure,the smaller the maximum rate of hydrate formation.We observed that wax crystal precipitation increases the viscosity of the emulsion,which limits the diffusion of gas in the liquid phase during hydrate nucleation and thus delays the hydrate nucleation.The methane gas precipitation also affects the remaining fraction’s wax content and therefore affects the wax precipitation.Secondary hydrate formation was observed several times during the experiment,increasing the risk of pipeline blockage.Overall,this work provides insights into the effect of wax crystal precipitation on hydrate behaviour that could facilitate flow assurance applications in subsea multiphase pipelines and inform the safe transportation of oil and gas pipelines.

Analysis and experimental study on resistance-increasing behavior of composite high efficiency autonomous inflow control device

Bottom water coning is the main reason to reduce the recovery of horizontal bottom water reservoir. By water coning, we mean the oil-water interface changes from a horizontal state to a mound-shaped cone and breaks through to the wellbore. Autonomous inflow control device(AICD) is an important instrument maintain normal production after bottom water coning, however, the resistance increasing ability of the swirl type AICD is insufficient at present, which seriously affects the water control effect. Aiming this problem, this paper designs a multi-stage resistance-increasing and composite type AICD. The separation mechanism of oil-water two phases in this structure, the resistance form of oil-water single phase and the resistance-increasing principle of water phase are analyzed. Establishing the dual-phase multi-stage separation and resistance-increasing model, and verified by measuring the throttling pressure drop and oil-water volume fraction of the AICD, it is found that the composite type AICD has the effect of ICD and AICD at the same time, which can balance the production rate of each well section at the initial stage of production, delay the occurrence of bottom water coning. In the middle and later stages of production, water-blocking can be effectively increased to achieve water control and stable production.After structural sensitivity analysis, the influence law of various structural parameters on the water control performance of composite AICD was obtained. The simulation calculation results show that,compared with the existing swirl type AICD, composite AICD has higher sensitivity to moisture content,the water phase throttling pressure drop is increased by 4.5 times on average. The composite AICD is suitable for the entire stage of horizontal well production.

Torsional Response Analysis of Flexible Pipe Based on Theory and Finite Element Method

As key components connecting offshore floating production platforms and subsea imports, offshore flexible pipes play significant roles in oil, natural gas, and water injection. It is found that torsional failure is one of the failure modes of flexible pipes during transportation and laying. In this paper, a theoretical model(TM) of a flexible pipe section mechanics is established, in which the carcass layer and the pressure armor layer are equivalent to the orthogonal anisotropic layers due to its complex cross-section structure. The calculation results of the TM are consistent with those of a finite element model(FEM), which can accurately describe the torsional response of the flexible pipe.Subsequently, the TM and FEM are used to discuss the influence of boundary conditions on the torsional response.The structure of the flexible pipe is stable when twisted counterclockwise. However, limiting the top axial displacement can improve the axial and radial instability of the tensile armor layer when twisted clockwise. Finally, it is recommended that the flexible pipe can be kept under top fixation during service or installation to avoid torsional failure.

Subsea Compensation of Pressure Based on Reducer Bellows

In this study,the pressure compensation mechanism of a reducer bellows is analyzed.This device is typically used to reduce the size of undersea instruments and improve related pressure resistance and sealing capabilities.Here,its axial stiffness is studied through a multi-fold approach based on theory,simulations and experiments.The results indicate that the mechanical strength of the reducer bellows,together with the oil volume and temperature are the main factors influencing its performances.In particular,the wall thickness,wave number,middle distance,and wave height are the most influential parameters.For a certain type of reducer bellows,the compensation capacity attains a maximum when the wave number ratio is between 6:6 and 8:4,the wall thickness is 0.3 mm,and the wave height is between 4–5 mm and 5–6 mm.Moreover,the maximum allowable ambient pres-sure of the optimized reducer bellows can reach 62.6 MPa without failure,and the maximum working water depth is 6284 m.

Sealing performance and mechanical response of mud pump piston

In order to explore the effect of piston cup structure on its sealing characteristics and mechanical properties,a numerical simulation model of the piston cup in the BW-160 mud pump was established.Effects of work load,friction coefficient and cup structure parameters on the sealing and mechanical properties of the piston were discussed under mud discharge condition.The results show that stress concentration on the root and lips of the cup is becoming more and more obvious with the working load increases.The average contact pressure increases with the friction coefficient increases,but an excessive friction coefficient accelerate the wear of the cup and the heat generation.Effect of the piston lip interference and thickness on the sealing performance of the cup is greater than that of the inner wall width.The piston with groove structure can effectively improve the sealing performance of the piston.The mechanical properties of triangular groove cup are better than that of semicircular and trapezoidal groove cup.

Review of research on intelligent diagnosis of oil transfer pump malfunction

Oil transfer pump is the key dynamic equipment in the process of oil and gas gathering and transportation,and its working reliability directly affects the safety of oil and gas storage and transportation.Intelligent diagnosis is a key technical method to reduce failure rate of oil transfer pump,ensure the safety of gathering and transportation process,and avoid major safety accidents caused by oil transfer pump failure.Various oil transfer pumps have been emerged in recent decades,and the common fault types and characteristics of oil transfer pump have been brought out in the review.This article highlights on the research of the fault signal and processing methods of oil transfer pump.Firstly,the fault signal of the oil transfer pump is discussed and the advantages and disadvantages of different signal extraction are analyzed.Secondly,the intelligent diagnosis method of oil transfer pump and the shortcomings of the existing methods are pointed out.Finally,the conclusions are given and the future development perspectives of oil transfer pumps are suggested.The main contribution of this review is to give a syn-thetic understanding on oil transfer pumps.

Theoretical calculation of high-pressure CO_(2)jet in cases of composite rock-breaking based on span-wagner equation of state

Although several theoretical calculation methods for high-pressure jet are available,there is currently no theoretical model for the high-pressure CO_(2)jet based on the high-precision equation of state(EOS).To investigate the flow field of the high-pressure CO_(2)jet in cases of the composite rock-breaking under the high-pressure CO_(2)Jet and PDC cutter,a semi-analytical approach of the high-pressure CO_(2)jet is developed based on the Span-Wagner EOS and CO_(2)jet theory.The semi-analytical calculations and the physical property calculations under the action of the high-pressure CO_(2)jet are conducted with consideration of the jet pressure,the jet distance,the nozzle diameter and the jet angle.The results indicate that the distribution of the physical properties calculated by the semi-analytical approaches is similar to that obtained by experimental monitoring and numerical simulation,which indicates that the calculation method of the high-pressure CO_(2)jet presented in this paper is effective and reliable.The properties of the CO_(2)jet obtained by the theoretical calculation see a significant difference between the initial region and the jet impact region.At the temperature of 300 K,the increase of the initial pressure can effectively increase the impact force and the cooling ability of the jet.The proportion of the jet core lengths in the jet on the axis increases with the increase of the ratio of the nozzle diameter to the jet length,accompanied with the increase of the impact force of the jet.The increase of the jet angle can effectively increase the impacting force of the jet,but hampers the fluid diffusion.The study combines the theoretical calculation of the jet with the calculation of the physical properties of the high-pressure CO_(2),for comprehensively understanding the CO_(2)jet field in the composite rock-breaking under the action of the high-pressure CO_(2)jet and PDC cutter.This theoretical calculation of the CO_(2)jet based on the high-precision EOS provides an option for the convenient calculation of the CO_(2)drilling in practical engineering.