Numerical investigation of heat transfer characteristics for Subsea Xmas tree assembly

Abstract

This study focuses on the heat transfer characteristic of a horizontal subsea Xmas tree assembly at a high spatial resolution. Computational fluid dynamics (steady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes) in combination with Low Reynolds number modelling (LRNM) is adopted for heat transfer analysis, which has been validated against a full scale underwater gate valve heat transfer experiment with good agreements. The characteristics of cold sea water flowing through the subsea tree, and of convection heat transfer between the subsea tree and ambient cold water are obtained. The typical “hot spots,” which have high Convection heat transfer coefficient (CHTC) and create great large amounts of heat loss, are numerically determined. Under the designed water depth, the effects of installation orientation, sea water velocity, and inner oil temperature on convection heat transfer are investigated as well. Such work is significant for thermal design of the subsea tree to increase structural reliability and flow assurance level.