# Thermal-Structural Coupling Analysis of Subsea Connector Sealing Contact
## 5 Numerical Simulation of Thermal-Structural Coupling of the Subsea Connector
### The Overall Temperature Field Distribution of the Connector Sealing Structure  
Figure 12 shows the overall steady-state temperature field of the subsea connector sealing structure. It can be seen that the overall temperature distribution of the connector gradually decreases from the inside to the outside. The temperature of the top and bottom hub and the inner wall of the lenticular sealing gasket is relatively high, which is above 143.39 \({}^{\circ}\)C. The maximum temperature of the system is 150 \({}^{\circ}\)C, which is on the innermost side of the lenticular sealing gasket and hub. The temperatures of the finger and the press ring are low, the temperature of the main body of the finger is below 61.506 \({}^{\circ}\)C, the temperature of the main body of the press ring is below 14.566 \({}^{\circ}\)C, and the lowest temperature of the system is 3.0697 \({}^{\circ}\)C at the end of the finger. The lenticular sealing gasket is in direct contact with high-temperature oil and gas and is located inside of the connector leading to low heat emission efficiency and concentrated heat, so the temperature is the highest. Although the hub is in direct contact with high-temperature oil and gas, the outer wall of the hub is directly exposed to low-temperature seawater, so the heat emission efficiency of the hub is higher than that of the lenticular sealing gasket. Most of the surroundings of the finger are in low-temperature seawater. Since the finger temperature is relatively high, the tail is far from the main body and is not in contact with the hub and lenticular sealing gasket of higher temperature, so the temperature is the lowest. In order to show the temperature gradient inside the connector more intuitively, as shown in Figure 13a, a path from the midpoint \(P_{i}\) of the lenticular sealing gasket to the point \(P_{o}\) on the outer surface of the press ring is established. The temperature change of each point on the path is shown in Figure 13b. Among the components of the subsea connector, the temperature of the lenticular sealing gasket drops by 22.32 \({}^{\circ}\)C, and the temperature gradient is \(-\)0.79 \({}^{\circ}\)C/mm; the temperature of the hub drops by 60.01 \({}^{\circ}\)C, and the temperature gradient is \(-\)1.05 \({}^{\circ}\)C/mm; the temperature of the finger drops by 19.54 \({}^{\circ}\)C, and the temperature gradient is \(-\)0.38\({}^{\circ}\)C/mm; the temperature of the press ring drops by 2.64 \({}^{\circ}\)C, and the temperature gradient is \(-\)0.03 \({}^{\circ}\)C/mm. In the seawater layer, the temperature of the seawater layer 1 between the sealing gasket and the hub drops by  
Figure 12: Steady-state temperature field of the whole subsea collet connector. 9.32 \({}^{\circ}\)C, and the temperature gradient is \(-\)1.33 \({}^{\circ}\)C/mm; the temperature of the seawater layer 2 between the flange and the finger drops by 4.63 \({}^{\circ}\)C, and the temperature gradient is \(-\)1.16 \({}^{\circ}\)C/mm; the temperature of the seawater layer 3 between the finger and the press ring drops by 5.07 \({}^{\circ}\)C, and the temperature gradient is \(-\)0.60 \({}^{\circ}\)C/mm. It can be seen that on the path \(P_{i}P_{o}\), the falling temperature and temperature gradient of the hub are the maximum values of all parts, and the values of the sealing gasket, finger, and press ring decrease in order, which is consistent with the previous analysis. Since the lenticular sealing gasket is the easiest to use to conduct a comparative analysis between theory and simulation in the subsequent thermal-structural coupling process, its steady-state temperature field is discussed separately here. The temperature distribution of the lenticular sealing gasket is shown in Figure 14a. The temperature is uniformly distributed along the circumferential direction and gradually decreases from the inside to the outside and the temperature gradient is small.