Cross-section Design And Analysis Of Umbilical Cable In Subsea Production System

Exploration and development of oil and gas in deep sea are the main source of future energy which ensures rapid development of Chinese economy and an indispensable condition of national prosperity in the future. Umbilical cable is a key equipment of subsea production system for oil field development and plays a vital role for deep-sea oil and gas exploration. In order to master the key technologies of design and manufacture for umbilical cables, the national government establishes an 863 program about design, manufacture and test of umbilical cables, in which cross-section design and analysis for umbilical cables are one important part studied in this paper.The structure of umbilical cable is composed of a variety of functional components with helical structures and non-adhesive form. So contact, friction and slip may occur between the components, which makes the design and analysis of cross section of umbilical cable very difficult. First, the research status of umbilical cable is surveyed in details, focusing on the functional design and strengthen design method of umbilical cable cross section.Secondly, considering that the tensile and bending stiffness are the most important design factors in preliminary design stage of the umbilical cable, and also the indispensable input parameters in static and dynamic analysis under environmental and installation loads, the tensile and bending mechanical properties of one power umbilical cable are researched mainly based on 3D FEM method. The numerical results are compared with those from experimental research, which fully demonstrates the correctness of the numerical model and analysis method.Finally, the cross section of umbilical cable used in deep water is designed and analyzed based on the above modeling techniques. Frictions and contacts between the components play an essential role in the analysis of the structures of the umbilical cable. The numerical results demonstrate that the friction has little effect on the tensile properties, but significant influence on the bending properties.