Material Selection for Composite Pipe

Challenges

A challenge to Saudi Aramco’s team was to develop long lifecycle, multilayered, multimaterial reinforced thermoplastic pipelines (RTP) within a tightly regulated offshore oil drilling industry.

The product would be subject to rigorous and lengthy qualification testing to ensure that it met the challenge of operating in a wide range temperatures, pressures, and types of transported fluids. To overcome these challenges, the composite development team needed to collaborate with RTP manufacturers and suppliers in the material selection process.

Engineering solution

Saudi Aramco’s composite development team used Ansys Granta Selector. The aim was to find alternative materials for the design of multilayer thermoplastic systems. They integrated the software into Saudi Aramco’s material selection process to act as a reference platform for material data among the partners. Granta Selector offered the flexibility needed to interface with other engineering software being used on the project.

Benefits

Firstly, it only took 2 hours for users to become fully trained in using the software. Additionally, they selecter 10 new candidate materials for RTP from over 7,000 materials. Selection was based on diverse criteria such as mechanical response, heat deflection, chemical resistance, processability, and cost. All in all, Granta Selector tool aligned with Saudi Aramco’s initiative for the development of nonmetallic applications in the Oil & Gas sector.