Chuang Wen, a PH.D student in College of Pipeline and Civil Engineering, attended the Offshore Technology Conference 2013 held in Houston, Texas, USA, May 5-9, 2013, and made an oral presentation on the topic of “Effects of Operating Parameters on Flow Characteristics of Natural Gas in Supersonic Separators” at the conference.

Founded in 1969, the Offshore Technology Conference is the world’s foremost event for the development of offshore resources in the fields of drilling, exploration, production, and environmental protection. OTC is held annually at Reliant Center in Houston. Each year, OTC attracts more than 80,000 attendees from 110+ countries and 2,700 exhibiting companies. Attendance at the conference reached a 30-year high of 104,800, the second highest in show history and up 17% from last year.

OTC is sponsored by 13 industry organizations and societies, who work cooperatively to develop the technical program, Such as American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers (AIME), American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), ASME International Petroleum Technology Institute (ASME-PD), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Oceanic and Engineering Society (IEEE-OES), Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG), Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and so on

This year’s event featured nine panel sessions, 29 executive keynote presentations at luncheons and breakfasts, and 298 technical papers. Speakers from major IOCs, NOCs, and independent operators presented their views on the current challenges and future directions of the industry. OTC’s Spotlight on New Technology recognized 15 technologies for their innovation in allowing the industry to produce offshore resources.

In the OTC 2013 conference, I made an oral presentation on the topic of “Effects of Operating Parameters on Flow Characteristics of Natural Gas in Supersonic Separators” at the session of “Subsea Systems Technology”. When I gave the oral presentation, Dr Michael Romer, the Session Chairpersons, asked me a technique question on the mesh generation of the complex geometry, which is a very important part of our simulation word. We did appreciate his suggestion on our topics and enjoy the talks between us.

Finally, this presentation was supported in part by the Foundation for Innovation and Academic Exchange from the Graduate School of China University of Petroleum (East China). I would like to give the blessing of the most devout and most sincere gratitude to Mr Pingfa Gao, Mr Shiguang Zhou, Ms Jing Bi and my supervisor, Dr. Xuewen Cao for their warm supports and help for my attendance in the conference.