This course focuses on the design of subsea blowout preventers for ultra-deepwater conditions and its role in the reliable and safe operation of subsea production systems.
The course provides a detailed analysis of blowout preventers as used in pressure control of oil and gas drilling and production. Blowout preventers are inherently multi-domain systems involving electro-mechanical, thermal, fluid subsystems. These devices are required to shear through thick wall drill strings and tool joints during emergency operations. A unifying approach capturing BOP design will address material selection, subsystem design (particularly the shear rams), and system integration. The materials of this course emphasize the understanding of basic sciences, engineering and control principles to overall BOPs.
A project will be completed in this course. The project will focus on the design of a subsea BOP control system and analysis of response time. Design and analysis of a simple hydraulic circuit to actuate the BOP rams will be required. The project design shall be subjected to American Petroleum Institute (API) and government regulations. Each student will write a technical report that is of archival publication quality.