Gene Kliewer
Technology Editor, Subsea & Seismic
PERTH, Australia --The Deep Offshore Technology International Asia/Pacific Conference and Exhibition today heard Adam Jackson of Bredero Shaw Norway discuss the use of styrenic-based insulation materials on deep offshore pipelines with high hydrostatic pressure.
The family of styrenic materials can offer a range of properties when used alone or in combination with copolymers, terpolymers, blends, and dispersions. They have been used in extrudable, foamed, and thermoformed products, said Jackson.
The low thermal expansion coefficient and hydrophobic nature of the materials means little water absorption, and the thermal conductivity of the solid base polymer is lower than either polypropylene or polyurethane solids, and can match the performance of complex syntactic versions of each.
The styrenic materials perform without the addition of glass beads and thus are effective at depth pressures, showing little dimension changes, said Jackson. The material fuses to itself and can use conventional extrusion technology.
12/04/2008
