A Study on Heat Loss from Offshore Pipelines Depending on the Thermal Conductivity of Backfills and Burial Depth

A Study on Heat Loss from Offshore Pipelines Depending on the Thermal Conductivity of Backfills and Burial Depth

Subsea pipelines are designed to transport mixtures of oil, gas, and their associated impurities from the wellhead that can have temperatures as high as $100^{\circ}C$, while the external temperature can be as low as $5^{\circ}C$. Heat can be lost from the subsea pipeline containing high-temperature fluid to the surrounding environment. It is important that the pipeline is designed to ensure that the heat loss is small enough to maintain flow and avoid the unwanted deposition of hydrate and wax, which occurs at a critical temperature of approximately $40^{\circ}C$. Therefore, it is essential to know the heat loss of subsea pipelines under various circumstances. This paper presents a comparison between numerical analyses and existing theoretical formulas for different backfills and burial depth.