"Machine Doctor" in the lifeblood of oil and gas fills the domestic gap

"Machine Doctor" in the lifeblood of oil and gas
Detector placement process on the offshore platform

"Machine Doctor" in the life of oil and gas 2

Detector recycling site

The oil and gas pipeline is called the “lifeline” of the economy. Its safety directly determines the energy production efficiency and is more related to social impacts such as environmental protection. Deeply buried in the ground, the defect detection must not delay production, the project cost is expensive... These "lifelines", especially the online detection of defects in the submarine oil and gas pipeline, are recognized as a world problem.

Recently, Professor Huang Songling, the director of Tsinghua University Oilfield Electrical Engineering Research Center, independently developed the “Detector for Defects in Submarine Oil and Gas Pipeline” and successfully applied it in Shengli Oilfield, officially proclaiming that this domestic gap was filled. Following the terrestrial oil and gas pipeline defect detection equipment, Chinese scientists once again dispelled the pride of foreign technology monopolists.

--- Pipeline leakage lessons are painful ---

The bigger the scale, the higher the risk

China has more than 5,000 kilometers of submarine oil and gas pipelines, forming a network of criss-crossing between the drilling platform and the platform, between the platform and the land.

Professor Huang Songling told the Science and Technology Daily reporter that “in the exploration and development of marine oil and gas resources, submarine pipelines are an important infrastructure for the development of marine oil and gas resources. With the continuous development of marine oil and gas resources, the scale of submarine pipeline networks will be increasingly expanded.” The data show that China's seas are rich in oil and gas resources. The proven oil reserves are 24.6 billion tons, accounting for 22.9% of the total petroleum resources; the marine natural gas resources are 15.79 trillion cubic meters, accounting for 29.0% of the total natural gas resources. This means that the offshore oil region will become an important base for the stable production of China's oil.

“Because the marine meteorological hydrology and geological environment conditions are far more complicated than the land, the risk is also increasing,” Huang Songling said.

In July this year, Thailand’s submarine oil pipeline leaked, and about 50,000 liters of crude oil overflowed, seriously affecting the local fishing industry and endangering the survival of marine life and corals. In December 2008, the Azerbaijan Caspian oil and gas pipeline leaked and thousands of tons of oil floated. In the sea, it brings terrible environmental pollution and ecological damage... These painful lessons have continuously raised the importance of safety for submarine oil and gas pipelines outside the industry.

--- Once a foreign technology monopoly ---

High attitude and high fees

“No patent declarations and academic exchanges are carried out, and even the company’s website does not display photographs of detectors in the oil and gas pipeline defects.” A few foreign companies with such technologies are strictly confidential on each key technology, so “small and cautious” is for comprehensive The foreign technology blockade is to earn high inspection costs.

From the 1960s, foreign countries began to study the online detection of pipeline defects. However, from the beginning of this century, China has begun to have such research results represented by Huangsongling's “oil and gas pipeline corrosion defect detector”. Prior to this, foreign companies were not technically cooperative with China and only provided testing services. Thousands of kilometers of oil pipeline inspection projects cost tens of thousands of dollars per kilometer.

"Even if the equipment is transferred, it is the old technology ten years ago, and only the software is not given to the hardware. Every time you do the project, you must wait for the foreign technicians. The domestic personnel can't get close." Such "transfer" is at best "lease". . The pride of foreign companies comes from technology monopoly, and monopoly is because online detection of pipeline defects is a recognized problem in the world.

Compared with the internal detection of land pipelines, the latest research result of the Huangsongling Group "the submarine oil and gas pipeline defect detector" faced the problem "not the most difficult, only more difficult" - before the results appeared, only two foreign companies had Defect detection capability of submarine oil and gas pipelines.

——— The results of the magnetic leakage test report—

Subsea pipeline detectors are hard to add

The basis of pipeline safety assessment is pipeline damage detection, determining the damage degree of pipelines, providing basis for pipeline operation, maintenance and safety evaluation, and maintaining according to conditions. So what is the “sacredness” of the defect detector?

In the medical field, capsule robots that travel through blood vessels are only a topic in the laboratory, but in the "blood" of oil and gas, this idea has already been realized. "In fact, it is a testing machine doctor." Huang Songling described it. When detecting a pipeline line, the "machine doctor" is inserted from the entrance, and then it will automatically advance with the thrust of the oil and gas transmission, regardless of tens of kilometers or hundreds of kilometers, the researchers just wait for it to come out at the exit, An automatically generated test report can then be obtained by recalling the data stored internally.

“The permanent magnet of the detector will output magnetic lines of force to the tube wall. If there is a defect in the tube wall, there will be a loss of these magnetic lines. This is the magnetic flux leakage. The detector senses the magnetic flux leakage condition through the sensor and then calculates it through a certain algorithm. Defective state of the outlet wall.” In-pipe inspection technology involves many disciplines such as non-destructive testing, communication, machinery, signal processing, fluid mechanics and materials.

So what are the difficulties in the internal detection of submarine oil and gas pipelines?

“First of all, there is a very high test for passability.” Huang Songling explained that compared with terrestrial oil and gas pipelines, the seabed oil and gas pipeline has a small turning radius of only 1.5D (D is the pipe diameter), which is close to the right angle, plus the fishing boat. Anchorage scratches, sea ice impacts and sea currents can easily cause deformation and damage of submarine oil and gas pipelines. If the detector's ability to pass is not strong enough to get stuck in the pipeline, then the cost of repairing the project is almost as high as re-laying the new pipeline. Since the oil and gas pipeline from the platform to the seabed is a vertical riser, high demands are placed on the speed control of the detector. "In addition, due to the wall thickness and small diameter of the submarine pipeline, the saturation magnetization is difficult, and the passing capacity requires the volume of the permanent magnet to become smaller, which makes the detection of the submarine pipeline much more difficult."

“Many oil and gas pipelines in oil fields are mixed with oil, gas and water. The flow rate is small and the flow rate is unstable. This increases the difficulty of detection. Previously, such pipelines often need to stop production and stop, which will affect oilfield production and cause large economic losses.” The "Submarine Oil and Gas Pipeline Defect Detector" was applied in the CB30A platform of Shengli Oilfield to the Haiwulian, CB11D well group-center No.1 and other submarine pipelines, realizing the online non-stop detection of oilfield submarine oil and gas pipelines. During the inspection period, the production will not stop, and the output of crude oil will increase by 428,300 tons, with a value of 2.092 billion yuan. Compared with the use of foreign testing equipment, the savings will reach 31.5 million yuan.

——— Foreign offers are greatly reduced ———

Target pointing to three-dimensional imaging

Since China has independently developed in-pipe detectors, the price of foreign companies has been lowered to the previous two or three percent.

Under the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the 863 Project, Huang Songling and his friends have tackled the key technologies of pipeline detectors, and have solved the large deformation and small turning radius of the detector, the electronic warehouse seal, and the detector speed. A series of engineering problems such as automatic analysis of control and inspection data, and the development of a series of detector prototypes, including corrosion detectors for various caliber long-distance oil and gas pipelines, corrosion detectors for various caliber subsea oil and gas pipelines, and oil and gas pipeline cracks. Electromagnetic ultrasonic guided wave detector.

Industry experts believe that the results are at the international advanced level, and the indicators such as defect detection sensitivity and deformation passability of pipeline detectors are at the international leading level. What really makes Huang Songling gratified is that “the truly effective cooperation mechanism between industry, universities and research institutes has played a very important role,” said Professor Huang Songling. Tsinghua University and Shengli Oilfield have established a joint research center for oilfield electrical engineering, starting with joint development of application requirements. Going a lot of detours."

After the research and development of the research center was successful, the research team transferred the technology to the enterprise for industrialization. This stems from the need for student development and also from social responsibility. “Innovate is used in practice, and once the technology is mature, it will be transferred to the enterprise.” Huang Songling said, “My research team is not allowed to repeat the previous results. This is to train students at Tsinghua University.”

Recently, the Huangsongling team has received special support from the national major scientific instruments. He and his partners are making the in-pipe detectors the world's best. "The original method can only measure the magnetic field in one direction of the pipe axis. The magnetic field is actually three-dimensional. Only the magnetic field in one direction is measured to estimate the defects in the pipe. The amount of information is not one-to-one, and may be several different sizes. Or the shape of the defect, the leakage magnetic field is so large or this shape, so the quantification of defects has always been a difficult point of non-destructive testing." Huang Songling paused, "The problem we have to solve is to measure the leakage magnetic field of the three dimensions of the defect, I also need to image the defects, use the information provided by the three-dimensional magnetic field, and use a specific algorithm, just like going to the hospital to do B-ultrasound or CT, and directly present the defects of the pipeline."

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