Hydraulic control line filters for subsea high-pressure application
AssigneeOceaneering International, Inc.
InventorsParteek Kapoor, Sunil Prakash, Amit Saini
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Abstract
Fluid containing contaminants may be filtered using a hydraulic control line filter for subsea high-pressure application comprising a housing, an end cap disposed at a first end of the housing where the end cap defines a filter fluid connector which comprises a fluid inlet and a filtered fluid outlet, a first centralizer disposed within the housing, a sump tube disposed within the housing and centralized within the first centralizer where an outside diameter of the sump tube and an inside diameter of the housing define a sump volume annulus there-between, a filter centralizer, and a fluid filter disposed in the housing and centralized within the sump tube by the filter centralizer.
Claims20
A hydraulic control line filter for subsea high-pressure application, comprising:
- a. a housing comprising an inner housing cavity and a pressurized fluid inlet;
- b. an end cap disposed at a first end of the housing, the end cap comprising a filtered fluid outlet;
- c. a first centralizer disposed within the inner housing cavity, the first centralizer comprising an inner first centralizer cavity and a first centralizer portion disposed at least partially within the housing;
- d. a sump tube disposed and centered within the housing, an outer surface of the sump tube and an inner surface of the inner housing cavity defining a sump tube cavity there-between, the sump tube comprising a sump tube inner cavity in fluid communication with the pressurized fluid inlet;
- e. a filter centralizer disposed at least partially within the sump tube inner cavity;
- and
- f. a fluid filter disposed at least partially within the sump tube and centered within the sump tube by the filter centralizer, the fluid filter in fluid communication with the filtered fluid outlet and the sump tube, a portion of the filter centralizer at least partially disposed within the fluid filter.
A method of filtering a fluid using a hydraulic control line filter for subsea high-pressure application, comprising a housing which comprises an inner housing cavity and a pressurized fluid inlet, an end cap disposed at a first end of the housing where the end cap comprises a filtered fluid outlet, a first centralizer disposed within the inner housing cavity where the first centralizer comprises an inner first centralizer cavity and a first centralizer portion disposed at least partially within the housing, a sump tube disposed and centered within the housing, an outer surface of the sump tube and an inner surface of the inner housing cavity defining a sump tube cavity there-between, where the sump tube comprises a sump tube inner cavity in fluid communication with the pressurized fluid inlet, a filter centralizer disposed at least partially within the sump tube inner cavity, and a fluid filter disposed at least partially within the sump tube and centered within the sump tube by the filter centralizer where the fluid filter is in fluid communication with the filtered fluid outlet and the sump tube and a portion of the filter centralizer is at least partially disposed within the fluid filter, the method comprising:
- a. accepting pressurized fluid via the pressurized fluid inlet;
- b. using the first centralizer to divert the pressurized fluid to the sump tube;
- c. collecting the pressurized fluid in the sump tube;
- d. allowing sediments present within the pressurized fluid to start settling due to gravitational effect;
- e. after the pressurized fluid reaches to a level of a predetermined subset of a predetermined set of sump tube ports in the sump tube, allowing the pressurized fluid to enter inside the sump tube and proceed into a filtration area via the filter centralizer;
- f. using the fluid filter to filter pressurized fluid collected in the fluid filter;
- and
- g. allowing the filtered, pressurized fluid to exit an inside of the fluid filter through the filtered fluid outlet in the end cap.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.