Gas hydrate blockage in pipelines during offshore production becomes a major problem with increasing water depth. In this work, a series of experiments on gas hydrate formation in a flow loop was performed with low flow rates of 0.33, 0.66, and 0.88 m/s; the effects of the initial subcooling, flow rate, pressure, and morphology were investigated for methane hydrate formation in the flow loop. T...

Long offsets and subsea tie-backs are becoming attractive scenarios for exploration and production of offshore hydrocarbon resources. Flow assurance associated with these field development scenarios is critical. As offshore oil and gas production pushes into deeper water, the risk of hydrate plugging of pipelines and flowlines continues to grow, as does the cost of remediating any such plugs. C...

Corrosion in pipe work is a major problem. While most plants have reliable information on most equipment, the least data available is always with respect to their piping. Significant portions of plant piping and pipelines are insulated or buried and hence, even external corrosion cannot be readily observed. Ultrasonic guided waves in the pipe wall provide an attractive solution as the waves are...

Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) as a Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) method is used to identify basic causes leading to an undesired event, to represent logical relation of these basic causes in leading to the event, and finally to calculate the probability of occurrence of this event. To conduct a quantitative FTA, one needs a fault tree along with failure data of the Basic Events (BEs). Sometim...

This study presents numerical simulations and experimental verification of a vibration-based damage detection technique. Health monitoring of a submerged pipe's girth-weld against an advancing notch is attempted. Piezoelectric transducers are bonded on the pipe for sensing or actuation purposes. Vibration of the pipe is excited by two means: (i) an impulsive force; (ii) using one of the piezoel...

The protection of civil structures, including their material contents and human occupants, is without doubt a world-wide priority of the most serious current importance. Such protection may range from reliable operation and comfort, on the one hand, to survivability on the other. Examples of such structures leap to one’s mind, and include buildings, offshore rigs, towers, roads, bridges, and pi...

The Companhia Siderúrgica Paulista – COSIPA is an integrated steel plant of the Usiminas System located in the municipality of Cubatão, in the coastal region of the São Paulo state, Brazil. This works produces 4.5 millions tons of steel per year; 1.0 million tons of this output are delivered as rolled plates, which meet a wide range of uses, such as those in agricultural implements, industrial ...

( ) A fundamental study was carried out to understand the aging or hardening of the wax-oil gels formed in the subsea pipelines during the flow of crude oil from offshore wells to shore. The aging process is a counterdiffusion phenomenon where there exists a ( ) critical carbon number CCN , and wax molecules with carbon numbers greater than the CCN diffuse into the gel matrices and ®ice ®ersa. ...