Thermal expansion of pipe-in-pipe systems

摘要

This paper presents a comprehensive mathematical model for the thermal expansion of pipe-in-pipe and bundle systems that are used in the offshore oil and gas industry. The inner pipe and the outer pipes are assumed to have structural connections through bulkheads at extremities and spacers or centralisers to prevent contact of the inner and the outer pipes. The aim is to calculate the displacement and forces on the bulkheads and axial force in the inner pipe. In addition to protective pipe-in-pipes, short and long pipe-in-pipes are defined and the limits between the two are clearly delineated. Analytical methods are extended to study the effects of exponential temperature gradients along both the inner and the outer pipes, the pipe-in-pipe length, tie-in spoolpieces, inner pipe weight, seabed and spacer friction and relative axial stiffness of the inner and the outer pipes on the thermal expansion characteristics. The iterative approach to solve thermal expansion characteristics proposed can be replaced by analytical calculation in most practical situations. Simple analytical formulae are suggested when the outer pipe temperature is constant. Analytical solutions indicate good agreement with finite element numerical results.