Framework design of cold water pipe joint based on fibreglass-filled HDPE composite using friction stir welding technique

Abstract

The Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) is renewable energy to supply electrical power by using different ocean temperature between seawater surfaces to a certain water depth. In the OTEC construction, Cold Water Pipe (CWP) is challenging component of OTEC that installed into water depth of >500 m. In this paper the material of CWP is selected the HDPE (High Density Polyethylene), which based on material properties. For commercial scale recently, assembling of joint HDPE pipe uses fusion welding for maximum diameter of 1.6 m. To consider this issue, this paper aims to design the CWP joint using Friction Stir Welding (FSW), which pipe diameter of >12 m. The framework design was performed to short fiber HDPE composite joint process with FSW process. In order to obtain high quality of HDPE joint, optimization of FSW parameters would be highly consideration in joint process. Therefore, this paper revealed a framework design for joint the HDPE pipe in CWP using FSW technique. The proposed framework might provide advantages in technical, investment and time for the FSW process compare to other method of joint process.