Open Access

ARTICLE

Subsea Compensation of Pressure Based on Reducer Bellows

by Shihong Xiao^1,2,*, Shichao Zhou^1,*, Linlin Yue¹, Xianyou He¹, Maolin Xiang¹

1 College of Mechatronics Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, 610500, China
2 Oil and Gas Equipment Technology Sharing and Service Platform of Sichuan Province, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, 610500, China

* Corresponding Authors: Shihong Xiao. Email: ; Shichao Zhou. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Simulation of the Structure-Fluid Interaction and Heat Transfer)

Fluid Dynamics & Materials Processing 2023, 19(10), 2549-2567. https://doi.org/10.32604/fdmp.2023.025063

Received 20 June 2022; Accepted 13 March 2023; Issue published 25 June 2023

Abstract

In this study, the pressure compensation mechanism of a reducer bellows is analyzed. This device is typically used to reduce the size of undersea instruments and improve related pressure resistance and sealing capabilities. Here, its axial stiffness is studied through a multi-fold approach based on theory, simulations and experiments. The results indicate that the mechanical strength of the reducer bellows, together with the oil volume and temperature are the main factors influencing its performances. In particular, the wall thickness, wave number, middle distance, and wave height are the most influential parameters. For a certain type of reducer bellows, the compensation capacity attains a maximum when the wave number ratio is between 6:6 and 8:4, the wall thickness is 0.3 mm, and the wave height is between 4–5 mm and 5–6 mm. Moreover, the maximum allowable ambient pressure of the optimized reducer bellows can reach 62.6 MPa without failure, and the maximum working water depth is 6284 m.

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Keywords

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