JP2012149722A - Fluid transportation flexible pipe - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a fluid transportation flexible pipe which can perform the heat insulation of internal crude oil or the like, and has a high-strength heat insulation layer usable even at the internal peripheral side of the flexible pipe.SOLUTION: The flexible pipe 1 is constituted of an interlock pipe 3 which mainly forms a pipe body, a resin layer 5, the heat insulation layer 7, an internal pressure reinforcement layer 9, an axis reinforcement layer 11, a protection layer 13, seat floor layers 15a, 15b or the like. The heat insulation layer 7 formed at the external periphery of the resin layer 5 heat-insulates fluid flowing in the interlock pipe 3 from external sea water or the like, and heat-insulates resin at the external peripheral side from the internal fluid. A heat insulation tape 17 constituting the heat insulation layer 7 is formed of resin, and the inside of which is dispersed with a large amount of hollow powder 19 which is glass-made hollow body.

Description

  The present invention relates to a flexible tube for transporting fluid for transporting oil or the like produced from a subsea oil field or the like.

  Conventionally, high-pressure oil or the like produced from a subsea oil field or the like is transported to a floating oil production facility or the like by a flexible pipe for fluid transportation. The flexible tube is required to have internal pressure resistance, liquid tightness, waterproofness, and the like.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an outline of such an oil production system 100. The oil production system 100 is a floating oil refining facility 101 floating on the sea and moored by a mooring line (not shown) and an oil production well 105 on the sea floor connected by a flexible pipe 103 for fluid transportation. It is.

  In the oil production system 100, crude oil derived from a production well 105 on the seabed is transported to a floating oil refining facility 101 on the sea by a flexible pipe 103 for fluid transportation, and the oil refined in the floating oil refining facility 101 is transferred. , Transported to various places by tankers.

  As such a flexible pipe for transporting fluid, for example, a stainless steel interlock pipe having excellent flexibility and excellent external pressure resistance and lateral pressure resistance at the time of laying is used for the innermost layer, and an oil resistant gas is provided on the outer periphery thereof. A plastic inner tube with excellent performance and liquid tightness is provided, and a metal internal pressure reinforcement layer as an internal pressure reinforcement and a metal axial force reinforcement layer as an axial reinforcement are provided on the outer periphery, and the outermost layer is waterproof A plastic sheath is provided as a layer (Patent Document 1).

JP 7-156285 A

  By the way, as mentioned above, many resin materials are used for the flexible pipe for fluid transportation. However, the crude oil pumped from the seabed usually has a temperature of about 90 ° C. immediately after being pumped from the production well. Therefore, it is necessary to use a resin having heat resistance at the crude oil temperature.

  Further, when the crude oil itself is cooled, the crude oil may be waxed and clogged inside the flexible tube. Therefore, it is necessary to insulate the crude oil flowing from the surrounding seawater. That is, in order to prevent such crude oil from being waxed, it is necessary to form a heat insulating layer on the flexible tube for fluid transportation.

  Here, by disposing the heat insulating layer on the inner peripheral side of the fluid transporting flexible tube, it is possible to insulate the resin disposed on the outer peripheral side from the heat insulating layer from the heat of crude oil. For this reason, it is not necessary to use a special heat resistant resin. In addition, since the crude oil is thermally insulated from the outside by the heat insulating layer, there is no problem of crude oil waxing.

  However, for example, when a foamed resin having high heat insulating properties is arranged on the inner peripheral side of the flexible tube for fluid transportation, the internal pressure due to the internal fluid is directly applied to the heat insulating layer, so that the heat insulating layer itself is crushed, There is a possibility that the function as a heat insulating layer cannot be exhibited. For this reason, when providing a normal heat insulation layer, it is necessary to arrange | position to the outer peripheral side of an internal pressure-proof reinforcement layer. Therefore, it is necessary to select a resin having heat resistance as the resin used on the inner peripheral side of the reinforcing layer. For this reason, there existed problems, such as a cost increase of the flexible pipe for fluid transportation.

  The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and is a fluid that can insulate crude oil and the like inside and has a high-strength heat insulating layer that can also be used on the inner peripheral side of a flexible tube. An object is to provide a flexible tube for transportation.

  In order to achieve the above-described object, the first invention includes a flexible interlock pipe, a heat insulating layer provided on the outer peripheral side of the interlock pipe, and a reinforcement provided on the outer peripheral side of the heat insulating layer. And a protective layer provided on the outer peripheral side of the reinforcing layer, wherein the heat insulating layer is formed of a resin in which glass hollow powder is dispersed. It is a flexible tube.

  The heat insulation layer may be formed by winding a resin tape in which the glass hollow body is dispersed in a resin.

  Between the said heat insulation layer and the said reinforcement layer, the shielding layer which shields that gas permeate | transmits to the said reinforcement layer direction may be provided.

  The glass hollow body may have a median diameter of 5 to 300 μm, and the protective layer may include 20 to 80 parts by weight of the glass hollow body with respect to 100 parts by weight of the resin.

  According to 1st invention, since a heat insulation layer is formed with resin in which the glass hollow body was disperse | distributed, the high heat insulation effect can be acquired similarly to the foam which has many pores inside resin. At this time, since the pores dispersed inside are glass hollow bodies, the compressive strength is high, and a compressive strength substantially equivalent to a solid resin that is not a foam can be obtained. For this reason, even if it arrange | positions at the inner peripheral side of a flexible tube, a heat insulation layer is not crushed by the internal pressure of crude oil.

  Moreover, manufacture is easy by winding the resin tape in which the glass hollow body was disperse | distributed and forming a heat insulation layer. In addition, since a plurality of resin tapes can be wound, the thickness of the heat insulating layer can be set according to the number of layers wound around the resin tape.

  Further, by forming a gas shielding layer that prevents gas from permeating on the outer peripheral side of the heat insulating layer, it is possible to reliably prevent the corrosive gas from penetrating into the outer reinforcing layer or the like. . At this time, since the shielding layer is disposed on the outer peripheral side of the heat insulating layer, the heat resistance from the fluid described above is not required for the resin constituting the shielding layer.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, while being able to insulate the fluid of an inside, the flexible pipe | tube for fluid transportation etc. which have a high intensity | strength heat insulation layer which can be used also on the inner peripheral side of a flexible pipe | tube are provided. it can.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional perspective view showing the flexible tube 1. FIG. 3 is an axial cross-sectional view showing the flexible tube 1. (A) is a figure which shows a heat insulation tape, (b) is a figure which shows the state which winds a heat insulation tape. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional perspective view showing the flexible tube 20. FIG. 3 is an axial cross-sectional view showing the flexible tube 20. (A) is a figure which shows the shielding band 21, (b) is a figure which shows the function of the shielding layer 7. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an oil production system 100. FIG.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the flexible tube 1, and FIG. The flexible tube 1 mainly includes an interlock tube 3, which is a tubular body, a resin layer 5, a heat insulating layer 7, an internal pressure reinforcing layer 9, a shaft reinforcing layer 11, a protective layer 13, seat floor layers 15a and 15b, and the like. .

  The interlock pipe 3 is located in the innermost layer of the flexible pipe 1 and is made of stainless steel having excellent buckling strength against external pressure and good corrosion resistance. The interlock pipe 3 is formed by forming a tape into a S-shaped cross section and meshing and connecting with each other at the S-shaped portion, and has flexibility. In addition, it is possible to use a tubular body of another aspect as long as it is a tubular body having the same flexibility and excellent in buckling strength or the like instead of the interlock tube 3.

  A resin layer 5 is provided on the outer peripheral side of the interlock pipe 3. The resin layer 5 shields the fluid flowing through the interlock pipe 3. As the resin layer 5, for example, nylon or polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) that can withstand high temperatures of 90 ° C. or more and has excellent oil resistance can be used. In addition, the outer peripheral side of the interlock pipe 3 means the outer side of the interlock pipe 3 in a cross section, and includes that there is another layer structure between the interlock pipe 3 and the resin layer 5. . In the following description, in the positional relationship of each layer, it is simply referred to as “periphery”, but it is needless to say that similarly, those having other layer structures between the respective layers are included.

  For example, a floor layer 15a is provided between the interlock pipe 3 and the resin layer 5 as necessary. The floor layer 15a is a layer for leveling the uneven shape on the outer periphery of the interlock pipe 3 and can be deformed following the flexibility of the interlock pipe 3. That is, the floor layer 15a has a certain thickness such as a non-woven fabric, for example, and serves as an uneven cushion on the outer periphery of the interlock tube 3.

  Note that the floor layer is provided as necessary, and in the following description, a case where the floor layer is provided will be described, but it is not always necessary and can be omitted. Therefore, the illustration of the floor layer is omitted in FIG.

  A heat insulating layer 7 is provided on the outer periphery of the resin layer 5. The heat insulation layer 7 insulates the fluid flowing in the interlock pipe 3 from external seawater and the like, and insulates the resin on the outer peripheral side from the internal fluid. Details of the configuration of the heat insulating layer 7 will be described later.

  On the outer periphery of the heat insulation layer 7, an internal pressure reinforcement layer 9 which is an internal pressure resistant reinforcement layer is provided. The internal pressure reinforcing layer 9 is a reinforcing layer for the internal pressure of the fluid flowing mainly in the interlock pipe 3. The internal pressure reinforcing layer 9 is formed, for example, by being wound at a short pitch so that metal tapes or the like having a C-shaped section or a Z-shaped section face each other and overlap each other in the axial direction. The internal pressure reinforcing layer 9 has a configuration in which a metal tape is wound at a predetermined pitch as described above, and can follow bending deformation of the interlock pipe 3 and the like.

  A shaft reinforcing layer 11 that is an axial force reinforcing layer is provided on the outer periphery of the internal pressure reinforcing layer 9. The shaft reinforcing layer 11 is a reinforcing layer for mainly suppressing the interlock tube 3 from being deformed (extended) in the axial direction of the flexible tube 1. The shaft reinforcing layer 11 is formed by alternately winding two layers of metal reinforcing strips at a long pitch. The shaft reinforcing layer 11 can be deformed following the flexibility of the interlock 3. In addition, as a reinforcing strip, for example, one having a tensile strength of about 1000 MPa can be used, but in order to cope with a deep seawater field, a high strength steel material having a tensile strength of 1500 to 2500 MPa should be used. You can also.

  If necessary, a floor layer 15b, which is a resin tape made of polyethylene or the like, may be provided between the internal pressure reinforcing layer 9 and the shaft reinforcing layer 11. Further, a floor layer 15c, which is a resin tape made of polyethylene or the like, may be provided between two layers of reinforcing strips that are spirally wound in opposite directions. The floor layers 15b and 15c are for preventing the reinforcing members from rubbing and wearing when the reinforcing members follow the deformation of the flexible tube 1.

  A floor layer 15d is provided on the outer periphery of the shaft reinforcing layer 11 as necessary. The floor layer 15 d is a layer for leveling the uneven shape on the outer periphery of the axial force reinforcing layer 11 and can be deformed following the flexibility of the interlock pipe 3. Since the floor layer 15d has the same configuration as the floor layer 15a, description thereof is omitted.

  A protective layer 13 is provided on the outer periphery of the floor layer 15d. The protective layer 13 is a layer for preventing seawater or the like from entering the reinforcing layer, for example. The protective layer 13 may be made of non-crosslinked resin such as nylon, polyethylene, polyarylate resin or polyamide synthetic resin. As described above, each layer constituting the flexible tube 1 follows the bending deformation of the flexible tube 1 and has flexibility.

  Next, details of the heat insulating layer 7 will be described. FIG. 3A is a view showing a heat insulating tape 17 constituting the heat insulating layer 7, and FIG. 3B is a view showing a state where the heat insulating tape 17 is wound around the resin layer 5.

  The heat insulating tape 17 is made of a resin, and a large number of hollow powders 19 that are glass hollow bodies are dispersed therein. As the resin material to be the mother phase, modified polyethylene, polyvinyldenfluoride, acid-modified polyvinyldenfluoride, silicone rubber, and the like can be selected.

  The hollow powder 19 dispersed in the resin is made of glass (for example, soda lime borosilicate glass), and is a substantially spherical hollow body. The hollow powder 19 preferably has a median diameter of 5 to 300 μm. This is because if the diameter is too small (when the diameter is too small), the heat insulation effect becomes small. Moreover, it is because a compressive strength will become small when a diameter is too large (when a thing with a large diameter increases too much). As such a hollow powder 19, for example, “Glass Bubbles” (trade name) manufactured by Sumitomo 3M can be applied.

  The hollow powder 19 is preferably contained in an amount of about 20 to 80 parts by weight with respect to 100 parts by weight of the resin. When there are too few hollow powders 19, the heat insulation effect will become small. Moreover, when there are too many hollow powders 19, it is because manufacturability is bad and it becomes weak as a whole, and flexibility deteriorates.

  The heat insulating tape 17 is manufactured by extrusion molding or the like by mixing a predetermined amount of the hollow powder 19 in the matrix resin. In addition, as a size of the heat insulating tape, for example, a tape having a width of about 100 mm and a thickness of about 3 mm can be used.

  As shown in FIG. 3B, the heat insulating tape 17 manufactured in this way is wound around the outer periphery of the tubular body on which the resin layer 5 is extrusion-coated. At this time, the heat insulating tape 17 may be spirally wound at a pitch of approximately the tape width so that adjacent heat insulating tapes 17 are in contact with each other, may be wound with a slight gap, or may have a slight wrap portion. It may be formed and wound. Moreover, you may wind the heat insulation tape 17 in multiple layers as needed. In this case, the spiral winding direction on the upper layer side may be opposite to the spiral winding direction on the lower layer side.

  The flexible tube 1 is manufactured as follows. The interlock pipe 3 manufactured in advance is sent in the axial direction, and a floor tape is wound around the interlock pipe 3 as necessary to form the floor layer 15a. The interlock pipe 3 on which the floor layer 15a is formed is sent to the extruder, and the extruder pushes the resin to the outer peripheral portion to form the resin layer 5. Further, a heat insulating tape 17 manufactured in advance is supplied from the tape feeder and spirally wound.

  Further, a reinforcing layer is formed on the outer peripheral side of the heat insulating layer 7 by a reinforcing tape winder or the like, and a protective layer 13 is formed on the outermost peripheral portion by an extruder, and is wound up to a predetermined length. Thus, the flexible tube 1 is manufactured.

  As mentioned above, according to this Embodiment, the flexible tube 1 which has a high heat insulation effect can be obtained. At this time, the heat insulating layer 7 is disposed at a position close to the interlock pipe 3 through which the fluid flows. The heat from the fluid can also be insulated from the outer peripheral side of the heat insulating layer 7. For this reason, for example, it is not necessary to select a resin having heat resistance against heat from a fluid for each floor layer.

  Moreover, the heat insulation layer 7 can reliably insulate the fluid from outside seawater or the like. For this reason, there is no problem of waxing or the like accompanying the temperature drop of the fluid.

  Moreover, since the hollow powder 19 disperse | distributes the heat insulation layer 7, the high heat insulation effect similar to foamed resin etc. can be acquired. Even in this case, since the compressive strength of the heat insulating tape 17 constituting the heat insulating layer 7 is high, the heat insulating layer 7 is not crushed by the internal pressure of the fluid. Moreover, since the density of the hollow powder 19 is small with respect to the density of resin, weight reduction can be achieved compared with the case where a normal resin tape is used.

  Moreover, since the heat insulation layer 7 is formed by winding the heat insulation tape 17 in which the hollow powder 19 is dispersed in advance, the productivity is excellent. Moreover, the higher heat insulation effect can be acquired by winding the heat insulation tape 17 around multiple layers as needed.

  Next, a second embodiment will be described. FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a flexible tube 20 according to the second embodiment, and FIG. 5 is a sectional view. The flexible tube 20 has substantially the same configuration as the flexible tube 1, but differs in that a shielding layer 8 is provided on the outer periphery of the heat insulating layer 7. The shielding layer 8 shields the corrosive gas or the like from the fluid flowing in the interlock pipe 3 from penetrating the reinforcing layer side which is a metal layer.

  FIG. 6 is a view showing the laminated film 21 constituting the shielding layer 8. The laminated film 21 includes a resin film 23, a metal film 25, and the like. The metal film 25 is sandwiched between the resin films 23.

  The metal film 25 may be thin if it is easy to process on the film and has excellent corrosion resistance. For example, stainless steel, aluminum, clad steel clad with a material having good corrosion resistance on the outer surface, or the like can be used. In addition, a metal film is about 0.05 mm thick, for example, and the laminated film 21 whole should just be about 0.2-0.3 mm, for example.

  Although the resin film 23 is a resin film, the metal film 25 can be prevented from being bent, torn, or wrinkled when the water shielding layer 8 is constructed. The metal film 25 and the resin film 23 can use known techniques such as adhesion and pressure bonding. Moreover, a metal layer can also be formed by vapor deposition etc. on the resin member by which the surface was masked beforehand. In addition, as the resin film 23, any resin such as nylon or polyethylene can be used.

  The flexible tube 20 may be configured by spirally winding the laminated film 21 on the heat insulating layer 7. Further, in the cross section of the laminated film 21, the metal film 25 may be divided and formed, or the metal film 25 may be formed in a wave shape or the like in the cross section in the thickness direction of the laminated film 21.

  As shown in FIG. 6B, fluid such as crude oil flows in the interlock pipe 3. As described above, crude oil and the like may contain hydrogen sulfide, which is a corrosive gas. For this reason, the flow in the circumferential direction of corrosive gas or the like from the interlock pipe 3 (in the direction of arrow A in the figure) may pass through the resin layer 5 and the heat insulating layer 7.

  However, in the flexible tube 1 according to the present invention, the shielding layer 8 is provided on the outer peripheral surface of the heat insulating layer 7. In the shielding layer 8, the internal metal film 25 can shield penetration of corrosive gas or the like contained in the fluid. Therefore, the reinforcing layer is not corroded by corrosive gas or the like.

  According to the flexible tube 20 according to the second embodiment, the same effect as that of the flexible tube 1 can be obtained. Further, since the shielding layer 8 is provided, it is possible to obtain a fluid transporting flexible tube in which the reinforcing layer or the like is not deteriorated by the fluid flowing inside.

  For various resins, the difference in the heat insulating effect by mixing the hollow body was evaluated. In addition, the measurement method of thermal conductivity was performed using Kyoto Electronics Industry Co., Ltd. QTM-500. The results are shown in Table 1.

“Resin” indicates the material of the matrix resin, and the type A of the hollow powder is Microballoon Glass Bubbles (trade name) manufactured by Sumitomo 3M, with a density of 0.6 g / cm ³ , and the type B of the hollow powder Is a product having a density of 0.4 g / cm ³ . Moreover, the weight part of a hollow powder is the addition amount of the hollow powder with respect to 100 weight part of resin. The resin thermal conductivity is the thermal conductivity in the case of only a solid resin, and the thermal conductivity of the resin + hollow powder is the thermal conductivity of a predetermined hollow powder dispersed in a matrix resin. The modified PE is polyethylene obtained by graft copolymerization of maleic acid, for example, Admer HE040 from Mitsui Chemicals. The modified PVDF is PVDF obtained by graft copolymerization of maleic acid, such as Kynar ADX manufactured by Arkema.

  As is clear from Table 1, it can be seen that the addition of the hollow powder lowers the thermal conductivity and exhibits a high heat insulating effect as compared with the matrix resin alone. Moreover, weight reduction can also be achieved by decreasing the density. In addition, although a result is abbreviate | omitted, compressive strength hardly changed with resin which added the resin simple substance and the hollow powder. In particular, since flexible tubes used on the seabed are desired to reduce the weight of the tubes as much as possible, the heat insulation tape of the flexible tubes should achieve both improvement of heat insulation and weight reduction as described above. Is particularly effective.

  As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was described referring an accompanying drawing, the technical scope of this invention is not influenced by embodiment mentioned above. It is obvious for those skilled in the art that various modifications or modifications can be conceived within the scope of the technical idea described in the claims, and these are naturally within the technical scope of the present invention. It is understood that it belongs.

  For example, if hollow powder is mixed in the resin forming the resin layer 5, layers having the functions of both the resin layer 5 and the heat insulating layer 7 can be integrally formed. Moreover, if a metal layer is formed in the heat insulation tape 17 which comprises the heat insulation layer 7, the layer which has a function of both a heat insulation layer and a shielding layer can be integrally formed with a heat insulation tape.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1,20 ......... Flexible pipe 3 ......... Interlock pipe 5 ......... Resin layer 7 ......... Heat insulation layer 8 ...... Shielding layer 9 ......... Internal pressure reinforcement layer 11 ......... Shaft reinforcement layer 13 ... ...... Protective layer 15a, 15b, 15c, 15d ......... Base layer 17 ......... Insulating tape 19 ......... Hollow powder 21 ......... Laminated film 23 ......... Resin film 25 ......... Metal film

Claims (4)

A flexible interlock tube;
A resin layer provided on the outer peripheral side of the interlock pipe;
A heat insulating layer provided on the outer peripheral side of the resin layer;
A reinforcing layer provided on the outer peripheral side of the heat insulating layer;
A protective layer provided on the outer peripheral side of the reinforcing layer;
Comprising at least
The flexible tube for fluid transportation, wherein the heat insulating layer is formed of a resin in which glass hollow powder is dispersed.   The flexible tube for fluid transportation according to claim 1, wherein the heat insulating layer is formed by winding a resin tape in which the glass hollow body is dispersed in a resin.   The fluid transportable device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a shielding layer is provided between the heat insulating layer and the reinforcing layer to shield gas from permeating in the direction of the reinforcing layer. Flexible tube.   The glass hollow body has a median diameter of 5 to 300 µm, and the protective layer includes 20 to 80 parts by weight of the glass hollow body with respect to 100 parts by weight of resin. The flexible tube for fluid transportation according to claim 3.

Images