The End of Cool Down Testing
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Henrik Alfredsson; Julien Rolland
- Source
- Day 4 Thu, May 03, 2018.
- Subject
- Environmental science
Thermal management of electronic devices and systems
Marine engineering
- Language
Cool Down Testing (CDT) used to be an integral part of project execution justified in order to verify the thermal performance of an insulated subsea production system. To combat cost and schedule risk a joint venture set out to qualify Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods to fully predict the thermal performance of any insulated subsea component and/or system without the need for future CDTs. This paper outlines the results from that work where CDT data compared to simulation results prove predictability within 1 °C accuracy for the subsea system product range. Results from simulations and full scale cool down tests on Kaombo Subsea Production System (SPS) reveal the importance of a system approach where interaction between components enables a system including thermal weak links to adhere to some of the most extreme thermal requirements seen in subsea development to date. Utilizing this approach the thermal system can be wisely managed retaining heat where available and allowing for local cold spots which, treated individually, would never meet the thermal requirement. The CFD tool enables the system provider to predictively size the insulation for the whole SPS without the need for future cool down testing. The predictive CFD tool furthermore enables a reduced execution cost and schedule risk by cutting out future cool down testing. This is especially important for small to medium sized brown field developments where cool down test avoidance constitutes considerable savings in the SPS budget. Avoiding late project findings and insulation system over-sizing to combat uncertainties also help to considerably drive down execution cost and risk for insulated subsea production systems.