New Polymeric Materials Development for Extreme Environments

摘要

Extreme environments are becoming more and more common as oil exploration and production moves todeeper reserves that have increasingly higher bottomhole temperatures and pressures. Development ofsuccessful products for extreme environments demands a detailed understanding of both applicationrequirements and materials engineering. Often, current materials and current designs do not fully addressthe needs of new applications in extreme environments. Therefore, new materials and new design toolsare needed. A review of the processes used for selection and development of polymeric materials andpredictive models for product performance in extreme environments will be presented. A generaldiscussion of oilfield product requirements and performance characteristics of PEEK and PEK will bereviewed as a starting point, to show why these materials became dominant in specific oilfield applications.Findings generated from failure analyses of field samples, and research on conditions in extremeenvironments (HPHT) will be reviewed and used to help target key characteristics for new materialsdevelopment.Capabilities developed to perform testing under simulated conditions and generate accurate predictivemodels are key tools in the design and evaluation of new materials. Material and product testing of a newpatent-pending polymer developed using these tools will be presented. Test results from current best-inclassmaterials PEEK and PEK in both coupon and product form will be contrasted with results from thenew polymer. The superior performance of the new polymer over best-in-class polyketones validated thisexperimental approach. This new material should provide enhanced reliability for oil and gas engineerswhen used to replace other materials for components used in demanding high-temperature and highpressureservice.