A special oil and gas issue of Ansys’ Advantage in-house magazine includes case histories from Technip and Schlumberger that show how the engineering toolset addresses complex problems confronted by upstream equipment designers. Technip has automated design runs to perform statistical analysis using Ansys’ parametric exploration and optimization tools to check the structural performance and integrity of subsea jumper pipe structures. Ansys’ DesignXplorer ‘design of experiment’ tool allowed a huge parameter space to be investigated rigorously with ‘only’ 20,000 simulation runs.
Schlumberger’s engineers have used full physics finite element
analysis to model buckling in various drill string and bottom hole
assemblies. The technique has allowed investigation of hydraulic forces
that can damage drill pipe in operations such as hydraulic fracturing
and acidizing. Modeling complex interactions between the drill string,
borehole and fluids has proved challenging using a conventional
analytical approach. Ansys’ Mechanical Beam188 provided an accurate
means of simulating helical buckling in a well test string sealed in a
packer. The tool predicted higher bending stresses than the analytical
solution, allowing for an improved BHA and safer deepwater operations.
Ansys’ attractively produced 32 page magazine is a free
download.
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