INFLUENCE OF THERMOPHYSICAL PROPERTIES ON TRANSFER OF HEAT IN MULTI-LAYER DUCTS AND TEMPERATURE CONTROL USING ELECTRIC HEATING

Resumo

Ensuring oil production flow in offshore systems is a critical aspect of oil exploration operations. Any interruption in the production process, whether partial or complete, can result in significant financial losses and cause solid deposition in the production line. Such deposition is due to the crystallization of paraffin and hydrates, a common problem caused by low temperatures in deep waters. Among various mitigation strategies, the Pipe-in-Pipe (PIP) system with active heating is a technological solution to address this issue. This work aimed to perform a numerical simulation of the PIP system using the Finite Volume Method with an implicit formulation, considering the effect of temperature on fluid properties and the system's dynamic response. A control loop using a PI velocity algorithm was developed to maintain the temperature above the critical point. Such simulation studies were performed using the Python programming language in the Anaconda suite. The results showed that the fluid properties greatly influence the dynamic response. The PI control maintained the temperature in the desired condition, demonstrating its operational effectiveness in preventing solid deposition and delivering stable and low-oscillatory behavior. This research emphasizes the significance of taking temperature's impact on fluid properties into account when simulating offshore oil production systems and demonstrates the effectiveness of implementing feedback control.