Life of Field
SEA supports subsea asset integrity and flow assurance management through the development of a thermal heat loss sensor development, which can not only geo-locate sites of heat loss from pipelines and other subsea structures, but can also quantify the extent of damage or coating loss. The system has been designed to meet the following requirements: - Detection of thermal insulation failures from subsea assets
- Non-intrusive remote detection technique with working depths to 4,000 m
- Detection against thermal margins of 1 deg C/km
- Quantification of damage of coatings (syntatic foam, concrete and others)
- Applicable to pipelines with diameters from 3" to 48" and upwards
- Applicable to complex structures; tight thermal margins
Using two different types of temperature measurement sensor, the system detects diffusion and convection (plume) anomalies indicative of insulation failures. This in turn allows the determination of the degree of insulation loss, as well as the location and size of defect. The product leverages the high absolute accuracy and sensitivity of the two types of sensor used. When operated from a remotely-operated vehicle (ROV), it is recommended that the sensors are held at a short stand-off distance from the asset (< 50 cm) and the vehicle’s forward speed is maintained at less than 0.5 knots.