Method for increasing subsea accumulator volume

• US 9,885,221 B2
• Filed: 12/30/2016
• Issued: 02/06/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Reel Power Licensing Corp.
• Original Assignee: Reel Power Licensing Corp.
• Inventors: Baugh, Benton Frederick
• Primary Examiner(s): Buck, Matthew R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Toledo-Duran, Edwin J
• Application Number:
  US15/395,653
• Publication Number:
  US 20170107780A1
• Time in Patent Office: 403 Days
• Field of Search: 166344, 166345, 166351, 166361, 166363, 166368, 13731502, 251 11, 251 12, 251 13, 417 2, 417375, 417379
• CPC Class Codes: E21B 33/063 for shearing drill pipes cutting of wireline E21B29/04
• CPC Class Codes: E21B 33/064 specially adapted for underwater well heads
• CPC Class Codes: E21B 43/01 specially adapted for obtaining from underwater installations
• CPC Class Codes: F04B 9/08 the means being fluid

Abstract

In a subsea system where subsea devices are operated using a pressurized fluid from one or more accumulators, the method of providing flow of pressurized fluid to operate a device which is greater than the flow from an accumulator providing the flow, comprising discharging the accumulator to drive one or more motors, driving one or more pumps by the one or more motors, the one or more pumps having a larger displacement than the one or more motors such that the one or more pump outputs a greater volume of fluid than the motor consumes, and delivering the output of the one or more pumps to operated the subsea device.

Claims

1. A method for a subsea blow out preventer stack having an accumulator and a shear ram for drilling oil and gas wells utilizing pressurized fluid as a power supply to activate said shear ram, comprising:

providing said subsea blow out preventer stack having said accumulator in communication with one or more motors and said one or more motors in communication with one or more pumps and said one or more pumps in communication with said shear ram,

storing in said accumulator said pressurized fluid at a first pressure and at a first volume,

using said first pressure and said first volume from said accumulator to generate a second larger volume than said first volume at a second pressure lower than said first pressure via said motor and said one or more pumps, and

thereby increasing the volume available to activate said shear ram while maintaining said second pressure at a level high enough to activate said shear ram.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising using said first pressure and at said first volume to drive one or more motors to drive one or more pumps to generate said second pressure and said second volume.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising said one or more pumps have variable displacement.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising said variable displacement of said one or more pumps is a function of the inverse of an output pressure of said one or more pumps.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising said one or more of said one or more motors is variable displacement.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising said variable displacement of said one or more motors is an inverse function of an output pressure of said one or more motors.