Abstract: A segment is fitted by screw-fastening for implementing a fluid transport pipe for transporting a fluid, the pipe including an inner wall and an outer wall, the segment including an inner tube and an outer tube that define an annular space between them. The segment includes in particular one heating duct placed in its annular space and opening out at either end of its annular space, the annular space being designed to be closed hermetically in order to enable it to be brought to a reduced pressure. A method of manufacturing the segment and a method of implementing the fluid transport pipe is described.

Abstract: The invention concerns a process and a device for laying a subsea pipeline according to the J-lay or S-lay method wherein straight sections are mounted onshore, dried and degassed then closed by plugs. The sections are loaded on a pipe-laying ship, are separated from their plugs before the welding. At the welding of each bulkhead a short pumping is operated to reduce the pressure in the part of the annulus located between the two last bulkheads and then the opening leading to the annulus are sealed.

Abstract: A method of commissioning one subsea hydrocarbon well terminating by a wellhead, wherein, from a petroleum drilling rig, the method includes: screwing double-walled pipe segments together in mutual succession to form a thermally insulated floor-to-surface 1 hydrocarbons, and an outer pipe, between which pipes a thermally insulating material is disposed; connecting the floor-to-surface link pipe to wellhead; and extracting the hydrocarbons via the floor-to-surface link pipe to the drilling rig on the surface.

Abstract: A method of commissioning one subsea hydrocarbon well terminating by a wellhead, wherein, from a petroleum drilling rig, the method includes: screwing double-walled pipe segments together in mutual succession to form a thermally insulated floor-to-surface 1 hydrocarbons, and an outer pipe, between which pipes a thermally insulating material is disposed; connecting the floor-to-surface link pipe to wellhead; and extracting the hydrocarbons via the floor-to-surface link pipe to the drilling rig on the surface.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method of manufacturing a pipe segment for a link tube between the sea floor and a petroleum drilling rig disposed on the sea surface, wherein it consists in: providing a transport pipe segment that is resistant to open-sea conditions; disposing a female bayonet-piece around one reinforced end of the transport pipe segment; welding or otherwise bonding a narrower portion of the bayonet-piece to said reinforced end; disposing an insulator around the transport pipe segment and around the bayonet-piece; inserting the transport pipe segment into an outer wall segment; welding or otherwise bonding a narrower portion of the outer wall segment to the other reinforced end of the transport pipe segment; disposing a cover-piece around the bayonet-piece; welding or otherwise bonding the cover-piece to the outer wall segment and to the bayonet-piece; it being possible to apply tightening torque to the outer wall segment and to transmit it to the transport pipe segment.

Abstract: The invention relates to an electrical heating system for at least one section of a fluid transport pipe, the pipe comprising a casing in which the fluid to be transported flows, the heating system comprising electric wires arranged around the casing and intended to be powered, via connection elements, by an electrical power supply comprising several phases, system in which the electric wires are arranged in at least one set of several groups each comprising several electric wires, each of the groups in said set being intended to be supplied by a distinct phase, the electrical heating system comprising connecting units to perform an electrical connection and linking together the electric wires of each of said groups.

Abstract: The invention relates to a hydrocarbon transport device intended to be immersed and arranged at an extraction wellhead, comprising a first pipe through which a first fluid leaving the extraction well flows, the first pipe being arranged in an external protective casing, a piloting system to pilot the temperature in the first pipe controlling an activation element of a regulating system for regulating a heat exchange between the first pipe and the liquid medium filling the immersed external casing, the regulating system comprising at least a second pipe arranged around the first pipe and delimiting an annular space enclosing at least one regulating fluid, this regulating fluid being injected into or expelled from the annular space by the activation element of the regulating system.

Abstract: The invention relates to an electrical heating system for at least one section of a fluid transport pipe, the pipe comprising a casing in which the fluid to be transported flows, the heating system comprising electric wires arranged around the casing and intended to be powered, via connection elements, by an electrical power supply comprising several phases, system in which the electric wires are arranged in at least one set of several groups each comprising several electric wires, each of the groups in said set being intended to be supplied by a distinct phase, the electrical heating system comprising connecting units to perform an electrical connection and linking together the electric wires of each of said groups.

Abstract: An installation (1) for continuous application of thermally or electrically insulating material (6) around an elongate element (2) having a generally circular cross-section. The installation includes a forcing device (3), in form of a conical tube into which the element (2) is fed simultaneously at the large base end of the conical tube, a sheet (4), on which the insulating material (6) is placed, means for translation of the element through a circular section (2) of the sheet (4), and a device (7) for depositing of insulating material onto the sheet. Such an installation produces thermally insulated tubes or electrically insulated cables.

Abstract: The invention relates to a hydrocarbon transport device intended to be immersed and arranged at an extraction wellhead, comprising a first pipe through which a first fluid leaving the extraction well flows, the first pipe being arranged in an external protective casing, a piloting system to pilot the temperature in the first pipe controlling an activation element of a regulating system for regulating a heat exchange between the first pipe and the liquid medium filling the immersed external casing, the regulating system comprising at least a second pipe arranged around the first pipe and delimiting an annular space enclosing at least one regulating fluid, this regulating fluid being injected into or expelled from the annular space by the activation element of the regulating system.

Abstract: A section of a pipeline for the transport of hydrocarbons that is adapted to a sub-sea environment, said section being constituted by at least one double casing comprising one external casing and one internal casing between which an annular space is arranged comprising a thermally insulating material, wherein said section comprises at least one heating circuit arranged in said annular space and a connection base fixed to the external casing and intended to a connection plug linked to an external electric power cable, the connection base closing an access passage in communication with said annular space, the heating circuit being electrically powered by the connection base forming a closed heating electrical circuit to heat the section.

Abstract: An installation (1) for continuous application of thermally or electrically insulating material (6) around an elongate element (2) having a generally circular cross-section. The installation includes a forcing device (3), in form of a conical tube into which the element (2) is fed simultaneously at the large base end of the conical tube, a sheet (4), on which the insulating material (6) is placed, means for translation of the element through a circular section (2) of the sheet (4), and a device (7) for depositing of insulating material onto the sheet. Such an installation produces thermally insulated tubes or electrically insulated cables.

Abstract: A thermally-insulated pipeline for the transportation of a cryogenic liquid, comprising three coaxial pipes formed of sections, one inner pipe made of a material having a low thermal expansion coefficient, a middle pipe and an outer pipe made of steel. The pipes are linked by linking parts which join sections of each respective pipe and take up the loads produced by thermal expansion or contraction when the pipes change temperature. The linking parts that join the inner pipe and the middle pipe are separated from the linking parts that join the middle and outer pipe, so that a thermal bridge cannot form between the inner pipe and the outer pipe.

Abstract: A pipeline for the transportation of a cryogenic liquid, thermally insulated and comprising three coaxial pipes formed of sections, one inner pipe made of a material having a low thermal dilation coefficient, a middle pipe and an outer pipe made of steel, the annulus space between the inner pipe and the middle pipe being provided with thermal insulation, wherein: the pipes are linked two by two using linking parts so as firstly to join the sections of each respective pipe and secondly to take up the loads produced by thermal contraction when the pipes change temperature. the section of the middle pipe is of a sufficient length such that when assembled, in cooperation with the linking parts, it prevents the formation of a thermal bridge between the inner and outer pipes.

Abstract: A pipeline for moving effluents at seabed level, including an inner shell and at least one outer shell having an outer surface separated from the inner shell by an annular space for receiving an insulating layer, wherein the outer shell includes a set of mutually spaced flutings arrayed along at least a portion of the outer surface and each fluting has a bottom resting on a spacer element located around the inner shell.

Abstract: The invention relates to a device reinforcing circumferential welds 8 which join two contiguous pipes 6 and 7 in order to increase the fatigue life of said welds by reducing mechanical stresses in them when being subjected to periodic bending. The device comprises a rigidifying element 10 which is firmly joined to said pipes by a connection means 11, 13, said bush being made of the same material as the pipes. The rigidifying element 10 consists of a bush slipped over the two pipes 6, 7 opposite the weld 8. The connection means is a hardening material 11 such as resin or cement which is injected between bush and pipes and which is confined at this site by shaping, in particular cold-forming, the bush's ends. The application is to offshore hydrocarbon conveyance conduits subjected to periodic loads.

Abstract: A process and machine to make double-walled pipe to be connected end to end, wherein each pipe includes inner and outer tubes arranged coaxially with a ring-shaped space between them except at a connecting area at the end of the pipe where the outer tube is longitudinally retracted with respect to the inner tube. An end-wall of the outer tube is deformed to close off the ring-shaped space by the gradual application of pressure to its wall by means of a series of bars spaced in a ring around a connecting area and tilted over in a radial direction by a crown that is fixed with respect to the outer tube and onto which the bars are attached in an articulated manner.

Abstract: A line pipe with a double casing is especially used in transporting oil products. In a preferred embodiment, such a pipe is characterized in that, in a sealed annular space, located between an inner tube and an outer tube both coaxially arranged inside each other, there is included a self-sustaining plate made of open pore-microporous material, which is flexible enough to be externally wound around the inner tube. This plate is preferably less in thickness than said annular space such that a passageway is left free between the former and the outer tube whereby low pressure is maintained.

Abstract: Flexual pivots are utilized as part of supporting elements in a mechanism requiring a high degree of precision of movement over an extremely small distance. An example illustrated is for a microscope used in viewing micropatterns on an integrated circuit chip wherein a focusing element is supported by such a flexual pivot structure.

Abstract: Apparatus for dispensing liquid preparations which comprises a container having demountable upper and lower container parts, the upper container part of which has a pressurized-fluid inlet connected by a flexible connecting line to a source of pressurized fluid and a vent, a flexible diaphragm located in the container so as to provide an expandable and contractable pressurized-fluid chamber and an expandable and contractable preparation chamber in the container, a charging and discharging orifice in the lower container part, and a flexible connecting line connecting that orifice with a point at which fluid is discharged. The container is mounted for rotation on a horizontal axis for allowing rotation of the container from a position in which the charging and discharging orifice in the lower container part is uppermost for filling and lowermost for discharge.