Composite armored flexible risers for deep water oil and gas production

The goal of this effort is the development of a lightweight, high strength, flexible riser for the conveyance of oil and gas from deep-water subsea wells to floating production vessels. Flexible pipe is a multilayer structure of helically wound metallic strips and tapes and extruded thermoplastics. The tensile armor layer in conventional flexible pipe consists of high strength steel rectangular wires wound in opposing directions to provide torque balance. The lightweight design incorporates carbon fiber/thermoplastic composite strip to replace the steel armor. A weight reduction of 30% is realized for a pipe designed to meet the same performance requirements. The results of tests conducted to qualify the composite armor material and pipe structure indicate the lightweight structure will meet all performance requirements for this application. Initial efforts to develop a composite armor layer service life model are presented herein.