Glass Bubbles for Thermal Insulation

Specifications Glass Bubbles for Thermal Insulation

The need to operate at greater depths and with longer subsea tiebacks has spurred the development of flowline and riser insulation that is lighter, stronger and offers lower heat transfer. The high strength and low thermal conductivity (0.06 to 0.2 WŸm-1Ÿ K-1@ 20ºC) of glass bubbles make them ideal additives for use in many wet pipeline and riser insulation applications. Applications Subsea Flowlines -- Conventional flowline constructions, such as "pipe-in-pipe," are proving to be impractical and too costly for use at today's greater depths of 10,000 ft (3,000 m) and more. Although pipe-in-pipe offers the best U-value (insulating value) and longest cool-down times, the added weight and bulk of its construction can make it more difficult and costly to lay, and too heavy to support in deeper waters, of particular concern for risers.

As an alternative, flexible flowlines -- consisting of a single pipe coated with glass bubble-filled syntactic foam insulation -- is less than half the weight of pipe-in-pipe, making it more practical for use at greater depths and in longer runs. Because this construction reduces overall pipeline diameter, more pipe can be wound per spool, requiring fewer and smaller ships -- making installation faster, easier and more economical. Because of these and many other factors, wet pipe insulation now accounts for the majority of all new deep water subsea flowlines. Compared with the standard glass bubble range of products, the XLD range of glass bubbles allows thinner insulation on flexible flowlines with the same insulation performance which enables even more pipe on a reel.   Production Risers – The industry trend for deeper offshore oil production platforms has driven increasing use of wet insulation syntactic foam coatings made with glass bubbles on Steel Caternary Risers (SCRs), Top-Tensioned Risers (TTRs) and riser towers, to achieve OHTC (U values) of 2 W/m^2 K and below.         Contact Directly: Felix Skype: vipblues Email: microspheres AT 126.com