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Quantitative Effects of Different Factors on the Thermal Characteristics of New Submarine Hot Oil Pipeline During the Preheating Process

  • INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES OF OIL AND GAS
  • Published:
Chemistry and Technology of Fuels and Oils Aims and scope

Preheating is a key step for the start-up of new submarine hot oil pipelines, which is characterized by the unsteady hydraulic and thermal coupling, and affected by many factors, including the fluid flow rate and temperature of preheating medium, the properties of subsea soil, the temperature of seawater, etc. To investigate the quantitative effects on the preheating results caused by the above influential factors, simulation research is performed in this paper with a numerical methodology named DMOC-FEM established before by taking a new Chinese submarine crude oil pipeline as example. The factors studied include the flow rate and inlet temperature of preheating medium, riser, physical properties of subsea soil, temperature of seawater, etc. The results show that the preheating medium mainly warms submarine pipe walls rather than the surrounding subsea soil. Among the influencing factors, the fluid flow rate and temperature of preheating medium have the most notable and direct effect on the distribution and change of fluid temperature in the subsea pipe. That caused by other factors happens to be much lighter in comparison. Due to the excellent insulation effect of the pipe-in-pipe structure, the temperature drop happens on the subsea pipe risers can be ignored. Furthermore, among the properties of subsea soil, thermal conductivity has the greatest influence on the outlet temperature during the preheating process..

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi (Program No.2021JQ-593) and the Scientific Research Program Funded by the Shaanxi Provincial Education Department (Program No.18JK0629).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Petroleum Engineering, Xi’an Shiyou University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, China

    Yong Wang, Qing Quan & Shouxi Wang

  2. Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Advanced Stimulation Technology for Oil & Gas Reservoirs, Xi’an Shiyou University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, China

    Yong Wang

  3. China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Corporation Southwest Company, Chengdu, Sichuan, China

    Kemin Dai

  4. School of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China

    Zongming Yuan

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  1. Yong Wang
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  2. Qing Quan
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  4. Shouxi Wang
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Correspondence to Yong Wang or Zongming Yuan.

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Translated from Khimiya i Tekhnologiya Topliv i Masel, No. 4, pp. 66–73 July –August, 2022.

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Wang, Y., Quan, Q., Dai, K. et al. Quantitative Effects of Different Factors on the Thermal Characteristics of New Submarine Hot Oil Pipeline During the Preheating Process. Chem Technol Fuels Oils 58, 653–664 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10553-022-01433-0

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