Ultra-Deepwater Carbon Fibre Composite Pressure Vessel Development: Dual Element Buoyancy Unit (DEBU)

摘要

DEBU was conceived to address the problem of steel catenary riser (SCR) fatigue at the touch down point and is a carbon fibre composite pressure vessel designed to withstand the external pressures associated with deep and ultra-deepwater. 'Dual Element' refers to the composites sandwich construction of the main cylinder. A sandwich construction was used to increase stiffness (resisting buckling) and reduce the mass of carbon fibre using relatively thin shells (reducing material costs). A significant amount of engineering design, material testing, manufacturing process control and scale testing has been completed. DEBU has been tested to an intermediate stage (4.5 m long and 1 m diameter). The next step requires validation of design tools and manufacturing processes concluding with a test to 4000 m.