Functional Analysis of a HPHT Subsea Tool Under Thermal Loads

The offshore oil and gas industry continues to develop new tools that are intended to be operated in increasingly harsh environments. Stricter requirements result in more complex assemblies that are composed of multiple closely fitting components. Fluid flows at high temperatures lead to transient and non-uniform temperature distributions in tools. This can affect tool functionality which needs to be assessed with the help of numerical techniques. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of thermal loads on the functionality of a valve assembly. A thermal finite element model of the assembly is developed to obtain temperature distribution everywhere in the model in transient and steady states. Temperature profiles are later mapped into structural models to obtain thermal strains at critical regions of the assembly. Thermal deformations are evaluated against internal acceptance criteria for operational functionality of the assembly.