Modular High Pressure Fluid Swivel Assembly
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing high-pressure fluid swivel assemblies for offshore applications require costly and time-consuming design, engineering, and assembly, as each stack must be custom-built with bolts extending through inner housings, making them expensive and inefficient to construct and deliver.
Innovation Solution
A swivel unit design featuring inner and outer housings with radial annular groove cavities and vertical passages that allow for pre-constructed modules to be stacked and secured without long bolts, enabling rapid assembly and replacement, with clamps securing flanges for ease of use.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If each swivel stack is custom-built with bolts extending through inner housings, then structural strength and reliability are improved, but manufacturing cost and assembly time increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The swivel assembly is divided into modular components: a base housing with outer housing and a separate stackable swivel unit with inner housing. This segmentation allows pre-fabrication of standardized units that can be quickly assembled using clamps rather than custom bolting, resolving the contradiction between reliability and assembly speed.
Solution Approach 2:
The swivel units are pre-constructed with inner housings, vertical passages, and fluid pathways before deployment. This preliminary action enables rapid on-site assembly by simply stacking and clamping units together, eliminating time-consuming custom engineering and bolting operations while maintaining structural integrity.
2Adaptability or versatility
If custom engineering is performed for each swivel stack, then adaptability to specific offshore applications is improved, but design and construction time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The swivel unit design incorporates universal features including standardized flanges, clamps, and interchangeable components that can accommodate different offshore applications. The modular architecture with stackable units allows a single standardized design to serve multiple purposes, eliminating the need for custom engineering while maintaining application-specific adaptability through configuration rather than redesign.
Solution Approach 2:
Standardized swivel units are pre-engineered and pre-tested in the factory with all fluid passages, bearings, and sealing systems configured according to specific application requirements. This preliminary action transfers the engineering work from the field to the factory, allowing rapid deployment without compromising adaptability to different offshore scenarios.
3Strength
If long bolts are used to secure swivel units together, then connection strength is improved, but assembly complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The connection system is segmented into modular clamping mechanisms that attach to flanges on the swivel units. This replaces the monolithic bolted connection with a distributed clamping system that achieves equivalent or superior strength while dramatically simplifying assembly and reducing the number of fasteners required.
Solution Approach 2:
Flanges serve as intermediary elements between swivel units, providing standardized attachment surfaces for clamps. These flanges distribute loads evenly and simplify the connection mechanism, replacing complex long-bolt assemblies with simple clamp-flange-clamp connections that maintain strength while reducing assembly complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A high pressure swivel is disclosed which includes swivel modules each having a stationary inner structure and a rotatable outer structure that can rotate about the inner structure. The inner structure of each module has the same number of vertical passages as the others. The inner structure of each module has a circumferential flange on the top and on a bottom lip so that each swivel unit can be secured to another swivel in its top or bottom with clamps around the flanges. The inner structures are rotatably positioned with respect to each other when assembled so that a vertical passage from a stationary base manifold to an outlet on the rotatable outer structure is formed. Various combinations of standard swivel modules can be assembled to accommodate specific swivel stack requirements for flow capacity and separate or comingled flow paths.