scholarly journals Estimation of the Filling Distribution and Height Levels Inside an Insulated Pressure Vessel by Guided Elastic Wave Attenuation Tomography

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 179
Author(s):  
Robert Neubeck ◽  
Mareike Stephan ◽  
Tobias Gaul ◽  
Bianca Weihnacht ◽  
Lars Schubert ◽  
...  

The operation efficiency and safety of pressure vessels in the oil and gas industry profits from an accurate knowledge about the inner filling distribution. However, an accurate and reliable estimation of the multi-phase height levels in such objects is a challenging task, especially when considering the high demands in practicability, robustness in harsh environments and safety regulations. Most common systems rely on impractical instrumentation, lack the ability to measure solid phases or require additional safety precautions due to their working principle. In this work, another possibility to determine height levels by attenuation tomography with guided elastic waves is proposed. The method uses a complete instrumentation on the outer vessel shell and is based on the energy conversion rates along the travel path of the guided waves. Noisy data and multiple measurements from sparsely distributed sensor networks are translated into filling levels with accuracies in the centimeter range by solving a constrained optimization problem. It was possible to simultaneously determine sand, water, and oil phases on a mock-up scale experiment, even for artificially created sand slopes. The accuracy was validated by artificial benchmarking for a horizontal vessel, giving references for constructing an affordable prototype system.

2017 ◽  
Vol 265 ◽  
pp. 1076-1080 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.V. Erpalov ◽  
Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Bogatov

Oil country tubular goods (OCTG) are widely used in oil and gas industry. In order to increase joint efficiency of the oil country tubular goods, the process for upsetting their ends is applied. However, the weakness of this upsetting technology is a frequent defect creation on the inner surface of the final product. These imperfections are surface breakings that reduce the effective pipe wall thickness; they are detected close to the upset ends of the pipe. Computer simulation and full-scale experiment were used to study this defect nucleation. According to this research, the occurrence of defects is correlated with average pipe wall thickness, non-uniform wall thickness of the blank, heating mode and friction conditions. The results of full-scale experiment confirm the main conclusions made in the course of the finite element simulation. The research results define the interdependence of actual size of the blank and the operating tool calibration.


Author(s):  
Emily Hutchison ◽  
John Wintle ◽  
Alison O’Connor ◽  
Emilie Buennagel ◽  
Clement Buhr

Life extension of ageing assets is becoming increasingly important for the offshore oil and gas industry. Many pressure vessels in service have reached or are about to reach the end of their design lives, but their continued operation is required until the economic field life is exhausted. Many vessels in-service were designed over 30 years ago, when fatigue assessment was not required by the design standards. Therefore, fatigue reassessment is a critical part of the life extension process. This paper presents reassessment of a benchmark vessel as a case study for life extension of other similar vessels. Life extension assessments are costly and time consuming, often hindered by a lack of information and a lack of access to the vessels. By determining the commonality between a vessel and the benchmark vessel, it may be possible with suitable on-going in-service inspection to justify life extension of the vessel without the need for a full fatigue life extension reassessment in every case. The case study considered in this paper is a condensate flash separator vessel constructed in the early 70s which was in operation for 25 years; and is similar to many pressure vessels still in service on offshore platforms. The fatigue lives of key features of the vessel have been calculated and compared using different modern pressure vessel design codes, supported by finite element analysis.


Author(s):  
Ehsan Shameli

Information about integrity of pipelines and pressure vessels is vital to the oil and gas industry. This emphasizes the need for fast and cost effective non-destructive testing solutions for monitoring and inspection of these components. However, due to reasons such as corrosion protection and temperature maintenance, pipelines and pressure vessels are usually coated throughout the oil and gas industry. These coatings also present a barrier to inspections and typically need to be removed prior to inspection with nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods. This article presents a pulsed eddy current (PEC) system suitable for nondestructive evaluation of steel pipelines and pressure vessels without the need for removing the coating layers. A PEC probe was fabricated and a custom computer code with built in signal processing and data analysis functions was developed to collect the measurement signals and calculate thickness variations in the test objects. From a lift-off distance of 12mm, experiments were performed on eight SS304 stainless steel samples with thicknesses ranging from 1mm to 8mm. The SS304 steel was chosen as the test material to represent the steel type commonly used in the pipeline industry. A calibration curve based on the zero crossing time of initial measurements was obtained and implemented into the measurement software. Using the calibrated system, 25 measurements where performed on each sample. Statistical analysis of results showed that the proposed system can accurately detect thickness variations in the test samples with maximum measurement error of 3.3 percent.


Author(s):  
J.C. Price

Abstract The last decade has seen a rapid increase in the use of Thermally Sprayed Coatings for Oil and Gas production applications. In particular, since 1982 the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry has considered Thermally Sprayed Aluminum (TSA) for protection of steel structures in the splash zone and other areas in the marine environment. Experience to date has indicated that when TSA is properly applied with a specific sealer system a service life in excess of 30 years with zero maintenance is possible. This produces a corresponding reduction in life cycle costs. Other coating systems such as Nickel - based alloys, Ceramics and Thermoplastics are also finding useful applications. This paper discusses recent advances in thermal spraying technology and current and future applications in the Oil and Gas Industry. This is illustrated with reference to several projects and details on life cycle costs. In particular, thermal spraying of pressure vessels, risers, pipelines and structural components are detailed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 78 (7) ◽  
pp. 861-868
Author(s):  
Casper Wassink ◽  
Marc Grenier ◽  
Oliver Roy ◽  
Neil Pearson

2004 ◽  
pp. 51-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Sharipova ◽  
I. Tcherkashin

Federal tax revenues from the main sectors of the Russian economy after the 1998 crisis are examined in the article. Authors present the structure of revenues from these sectors by main taxes for 1999-2003 and prospects for 2004. Emphasis is given to an increasing dependence of budget on revenues from oil and gas industries. The share of proceeds from these sectors has reached 1/3 of total federal revenues. To explain this fact world oil prices dynamics and changes in tax legislation in Russia are considered. Empirical results show strong dependence of budget revenues on oil prices. The analysis of changes in tax legislation in oil and gas industry shows that the government has managed to redistribute resource rent in favor of the state.


2011 ◽  
pp. 19-33
Author(s):  
A. Oleinik

The article deals with the issues of political and economic power as well as their constellation on the market. The theory of public choice and the theory of public contract are confronted with an approach centered on the power triad. If structured in the power triad, interactions among states representatives, businesses with structural advantages and businesses without structural advantages allow capturing administrative rents. The political power of the ruling elites coexists with economic power of certain members of the business community. The situation in the oil and gas industry, the retail trade and the road construction and operation industry in Russia illustrates key moments in the proposed analysis.


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