Abstract

In recent years, the exploration of offshore oil and gas resources in deep waters has notably increased. This has increased the demand for undersea thermal insulation belt for Deep-sea Oil Pipelines with high performance. Polypropylene (PP) is an environmentally friendly and recyclable material. However, its mechanical properties and thermal insulation performance inherently limit its application in deep waters. Herein, a ternary composite was prepared by modifying Hollow Glass Bead (HGB) with KH-550 and PP-coated glass fiber (CGF). The prepared composite exhibits excellent mechanical properties and favorable thermal insulation characteristics. Industrial-grade product belt has been produced by using a two-step process with optimizing machining parameters. The material prepared with 20% HGB and 1% GF exhibited compressive strength, compressive modulus, and thermal conductivity of 91.24MPa, 629.05MPa, 0.1W/m·K, respectively. These values exceed the standards for deep-sea oil pipelines belt.

Keywords:Hollow Glass Bead (HGB); Polypropylene (PP); Glass Fiber (GF); Thermal Insulation Properties