A current challenge in the offshore industry is the design of subsea equipment for pressures exceeding 15,000 psi and temperatures exceeding 250 degF. This combination of pressure and temperature has been fairly accepted as the start of the high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT) region. The current American Petroleum Institute (API) standard for designing subsea equipment, API Specification (SPEC) 17D (2011), is limited to a working pressure of 15,000 psi and provides little guidance on temperature conditions exceeding 250 degF. This paper demonstrates a design methodology that combines the API and American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Boiler and Pressure Vessels Code (BPVC) for designing an example subsea pressure-containing component for HPHT conditions greater than 15,000 psi and 250 degF.

This paper shows the evaluation of a combined load-capacity chart for an API SPEC 17D flange flow loop [API SPEC 6A (2010), 4 in, 20,000 psi] for a design pressure of 20,000 psi and a temperature of 350 degF with external tension and bending loads. Both the linear elastic and elastic plastic methods for protection against plastic collapse are used to determine the structural capacity of the flange body. These methods combine the API material and design allowables and ASME design methods. Stress classification and linearization are used for the evaluation of design capacities with linear methods. Modified load-resistance design factors are used both to evaluate design capacities and to account for the difference in ASME and API hydrostatic test pressures with elastic plastic methods. The structural capacity is combined with thermal analysis to determine the effects of high temperature on the flange capacity. To assess the cyclic-loading capacity of the flange, stress-based fatigue analysis and fracture mechanics analysis are also compared.

The results obtained are comparable to existing API Technical Report (TR) 6AF1 (1998) charts. This work has been performed to demonstrate both the acceptance of existing methods for HPHT conditions and to introduce the advanced ASME design methods for designing API SPEC 17D subsea equipment. The methods presented are acceptable for designing equipment for working pressures up to 25,000 psi and temperatures up to 400 degF.