Numerical analysis of cross-section ovalization in the deep-sea pipeline lateral buckling process

Abstract

The deep-water pipeline is the main means of transportation in offshore oil and gas development engineering. The deep-water pipeline may incur lateral global buckling due to the high temperature and pressure that are applied on the pipeline to ensure the contents’ liquidity. With the increasing operating water depth, a higher temperature and pressure are applied to the pipeline, causing large lateral deformation and a large bending moment. Due to the inhomogeneous distribution of the bending moment on the cross-section, different points on the cross-section will deform differently. This kind of deformation causes the cross-section to turn into an oval ring. The cross-section ovalization caused by global buckling was rarely analyzed in former engineering practice since the load is relatively low. With the increase in operation water depth and operation load, the ovality caused by global buckling is noticeable. This article analyzed cross-section ovalization caused by pipeline lateral global buckling with a numerical simulation method. The pipelines with different initial cross-section shapes were simulated, and the influence of several impact factors, including load, pipeline and soil factors on the ovality of the cross-section, were analyzed. The results show that the initial cross-section shape type has little effect on the pipeline ovalization pattern. The initial ovality of the pipeline with an oval ring cross-section shape has little influence on the residual ovality. Among all the factors analyzed in this paper, the pressure difference is the primary factor that should be considered in a pipeline ovalization check.     

初始几何缺陷对管道极限承载力影响研究

初始几何缺陷被认为是影响管道极限承载力和稳定性的重要因素,但是大部分的管道力学特性研究都没有考虑初始缺陷的影响。基于管道几何尺寸测量机,获得管道的壁厚和直径沿轴向以及环向的分布规律。据此建立了四个三维实体有限元模型,分别为完好管道模型、只考虑直径缺陷的管道模型、只考虑壁厚缺陷的管道模型以及考虑所有缺陷的管道模型。分析了初始缺陷对管道的极限内压承载力、极限轴力承载力和极限弯矩承载力的影响。结果表明,直径缺陷对管道的极限内压承载力影响较大;壁厚缺陷对管道在复杂荷载作用下的极限弯矩承载力影响较大。     

Study on First-Yield Collapse of Submarine Pipelines

-The first-yield collapse of submarine pipelines with an initial out-of-roundness imperfection un-der combined bending and external pressure load is formulated by means of the Von.Mises yield criterion.The formula reduces to Timoshenko and Gere's expression in the case of external pressure load alone.Theinfluence curves of various parameters on the yield strength are presented,the collapse of submarinepipelines in a deep water region is numerically predicted,and the effect of pre-yield nonlinear bending onthe yield strength is also examined.     

海底管线水平向整体屈曲及失效判断方法研究

海底管线是海洋石油的重要输运手段。为满足输送工艺的需要,正常工作条件下管线往往被施加较高的温度和压强,高温高压使管线内产生附加应力,当附加应力大于土体对管线的约束力时,管线就会发生整体屈曲。过度的水平向整体屈曲会导致截面产生较大的弯曲应力和压缩应变,对管线系统的安全运行造成威胁,因此需要对发生水平向整体屈曲后的管线进行验算。采用解析解法、规范法和有限元法对管线的整体屈曲进行分析,提出了应用临界屈曲荷载值域空间和值域下限来判断不同缺陷大小下管线是否发生水平向整体屈曲的方法。结合工程实例,分别采用内力控制标准和位移控制标准对管线水平向整体屈曲后是否失效进行了验算。研究指出,相较于位移标准,内力控制标准更为严格。     

初始几何缺陷对UOE焊管屈曲压溃影响研究

UOE焊管经过一系列成型工艺可以得到高质量的成型结果,但管道截面仍存在一定初始几何缺陷,这将对管道性能产生明显影响。通过试验测定X65钢在循环载荷下的力学性能,并利用有限元分析软件对UOE焊管成型全过程进行模拟,分析主要成型参数对管道屈曲压溃压力的影响。分别采用有限元模拟和试验测量方法确定管道截面初始几何缺陷分布情况,并采用余弦函数形式拟合几何缺陷。结果表明,扩径阶段芯轴数目将对缺陷形式产生影响,且实际厚壁UOE管道几何缺陷形式更接近梨形而非椭圆形。评估厚壁UOE管道性能时,近似认为截面形式为椭圆形可能发生过于保守的问题。     

Effect of geometric and material discontinuities on the reeling of pipelines

The winding and unwinding of a pipeline onto a large diameter reel as practiced in the reeling installation method, induces bending strains of 1–3% followed by straightening, and reverse bending. The operator must ensure that such plastic deformations are sustained free of local buckling or rupture in the line. Such failures are for example precipitated by pipeline discontinuities in wall thickness and yield stress as they act as stress risers, lead to localized deformations severe enough to result in local buckling. The effect of such discontinuities is studied using a large-scale nonlinear finite element model that simulates the reeling/unreeling of a pipeline. Nonlinear kinematic hardening is used to capture the elasto-plastic behavior of the material imposed by the bending/reverse bending history. Discontinuities in wall thickness and yield stress are shown to result in sharp local changes in curvature that extend over 3–4 pipe diameters accompanied by severe local straining and ovalization. The extent of the disturbance is governed by the bending strain imposed by the ratio of pipe to reel diameter. It can be reduced by an increase in the applied tension but at the expense of additional ovalization of the pipeline. It can also be reduced by increasing the pipe wall thickness but with the consequent increase in costs. A parametric study of the effect of such discontinuities demonstrates that for some combinations of process parameters, the disturbance can lead to local buckling either during winding or unwinding. It is concluded that a modeling framework such as the one presented should be used to generate a design protocol for reel-installed pipelines.     

The new simple design equations for the ultimate compressive strength of imperfect stiffened plates

The new simple design equations for predicting the ultimate compressive strength of stiffened plates with initial imperfections in the form of welding-induced residual stresses and geometric deflections were developed in this study. A non-linear finite element method was used to investigate on 60 ANSYS elastic–plastic buckling analyses of a wide range of typical ship panel geometries. Reduction factors of the ultimate strength are produced from the results of 60 ANSYS inelastic finite element analyses. The proposed design equations have been developed based on these reduction factors. For the real ship structural stiffened plates, the most general loading case is a combination of longitudinal stress, transverse stress, shear stress and lateral pressure. The new simplified analytical method was generalized to deal with such combined load cases. The accuracy of the proposed equations was validated by the experimental results. Comparisons show that the adopted method has sufficient accuracy for practical applications in ship design.     

Analysis on Buckling Performance of Submarine Pipelines During Deepwater Pipe-Laying Operation

Pipes inevitably encounter high ambient pressure and bending moment during the deepwater pipe-laying process,which can lead to elliptical buckling and even deterioration failure.For the safety of pipe-laying operation,available formalas for the pipe stability are established on the basis of the assumption of uniform deformation along the tube length and symmetrical buckling.This method can predict the nonlinear rcsponse of elliptical collapse of steel circular tubes for different ratios of diameter to thickness (D/t) under pure bending or combined bending and external pressure.In these formulas,the strain-displacement relationship is deduced from the nonlinear ring theory,and the Ramberg-Osgood constitutive model is applied to simulate the inelastic material behavior.Meanwhile,the principle of virtual work is adopted to derive the equilibrium equations.A set of equations is solved by the Newton-Raphson method,and the iterative scheme contains nested iteration for the constitutive relation.In order to check the effectiveness of this theoretical method,illustrative examples are presented in this paper.Besides,the numerical simulation is carried out by use of ANSYS.A comparison of the results shows that the theoretical method can provide reasonable prediction for engineering practice.     

Ultimate Load Capacity of Offshore Pipeline with Arbitrary Shape Corrosion Defects

A set of generalized solutions are proposed for estimating ultimate load capacity of pipeline with arbitrary corrosion shapes subjected to combined internal pressure, axial force and bending moment. Isotropic and anisotropic material characteristics in longitudinal and circumferential direction of pipeline are also considered in the proposed equations. Simplified numerical method is used to solve the generalized expressions. The comparisons of numerical results based generalized solutions and full-scale experimental results are carried out. The predicted results agree reasonably well with the experiment results. Meanwhile, the effects of corrosion shapes and locations on the ultimate load capacity are studied.     

Ultimate Load Capacity of Offshore Pipeline with Arbitrary Shape Corrosion Defects

A set of generalized solutions are proposed for estimating ultimate load capacity of pipeline with arbitrary corrosion shapes subjected to combined internal pressure, axial force and bending moment. Isotropic and anisotropic material characteristics in longitudinal and circumferential direction of pipeline are also considered in the proposed equations. Simplified numerical method is used to solve the generalized expressions. The comparisons of numerical results based generalized solutions and full-scale experimental results are carried out. The predicted results agree reasonably well with the experiment results. Meanwhile, the effects of corrosion shapes and locations on the ultimate load capacity are studied.     

Postbuckling of Imperfect Stiffened Cylindrical Shells Under Combined External Liquid Pressure and Axial Compression

- posthuckling analysis is presented for the stilTened cylindrical shell of finite length subjected to combined loading of external liquid pressure and axial compression. The formulations are based on a boundary layer theory of shell buckling, which includes the effects of nonlinear prebuckling deformations, nonlinear large deflections in the postbuckling range and initial geometrical imperfections of the shell. The "smeared stifl'cner" approach is adopted for the stiffencrs. In the analysis a singular perturbation technique is used (o determine the interactive buckling loads and the postbuckling paths. Numerical examples cover the performance of perfect and imperfect, stringer and ring stiffened cylindrical shells. Typical results arc presented in the dimcnsionless graphical form.     

Configuration analysis of deepwater S-lay pipeline

The safety of offshore pipeline has drawn a great deal of attention during deepwater installation due to the combined actions of high external pressure, axial tension, and bending moment. Meanwhile, the pipeline configuration has a remarkable effect on the structural behaviour of the tube. The special studies focus on the deepwater S-lay technique in the present paper. The stiffened catenary theory is applied to establish the static equilibrium governing differential equation of a pipe element, and the solution equations of the total pipeline configuration from a lay-barge over a stinger to the seabed are derived. The numerical iteration method for solving pipeline configuration is described in detail, and the corresponding program is developed to conduct the analysis of effects of various parameters such as laying water depth, pipe diameter, thickness of concrete weighted coating layer, stinger length, control strain, and axial tension on pipeline configuration. The results show that the laying water depth, the submerged weight of the pipe, and the axial tension are the critical factors influencing pipeline configuration. In addition, geometrical parameters of the stinger such as length, radius, and shape have an important effect on the pipe-laying capacity of the vessel. The validity of the program is further verified by means of a comparison with results obtained from the commercial finite element software OFFPIPE.     

On the effect of narrow and long corrosion defects on the collapse pressure of pipelines

Internal corrosion in pipelines is often caused by water, sediment, or chemical contaminants present in the multi-phase flow. This normally occurs at the bottom of the pipe and at low points in the pipeline where sediment and water can settle out of the product being transported, therefore creating narrow and long defects. The effect of corrosion defects on the collapse pressure of offshore pipelines was studied through combined small-scale experiments and nonlinear numerical analyses based on the finite element method. After calibrated in view of the experimental results, the model was used to determine the collapse pressure as a function of material and geometric parameters of different pipes and defects. An extensive parametric study using two and three-dimensional numerical models was carried out encompassing different defect geometries and their interaction with pipe ovalization. This paper reports these results which are subsequently used to develop a simple procedure for estimating the collapse pressure of pipes with narrow defects.     

三向载荷联合作用下的大型集装箱船结构可靠性研究

大型集装箱船（LCS）具有较大的甲板开口，抗扭刚度非常低。在恶劣海况下航行时，大型集装箱船可能会遭遇斜浪的作用，此时船体将受到三向载荷的联合作用，水平波浪弯矩和扭转波浪弯矩可能会接近甚至超过垂向波浪弯矩，船体可能因发生组合变形而破坏。因此有必要研究大型集装箱船在三向载荷联合作用下的结构可靠性。在研究三向载荷联合作用下各维度极限强度的相互关系的基础上，提出了大型集装箱船的极限承载能力的可靠性评估方法，并对目标船在各浪向角下的结构可靠性进行评估。结果表明：目标船在0°浪向角下的失效概率最高；考虑水平波浪弯矩影响后目标船的结构可靠性有所降低；扭转波浪弯矩对目标船船中剖面的结构可靠性影响较小。     

单桩基础灌浆连接段受力机理分析

海上风机中，上部支撑结构和基础之间的连接是通过灌浆连接段实现的。近年来，风力发电发展迅速，风力发电机的功率越来越大，对单桩基础灌浆连接段的受力性能提出了更高的要求。在复杂荷载作用下，灌浆连接段受到轴力和弯矩的共同作用，有必要对压-弯共同作用下的灌浆连接段进行受力性能的研究。采用数值分析方法，分析了压-弯作用下不同轴压比时灌浆连接段的极限承载力、钢管与灌浆料之间的接触压力情况和灌浆连接段的应力情况。同时，根据学者Lotsberg提出的弯曲承载力组成理论，通过提取钢管与灌浆料之间的接触力，并对它们进行数值积分，分析了不同轴压比下灌浆连接段抗弯承载力组分的变化规律。通过分析，明晰了带剪力键的灌浆连接段的受力性能，为设计工作提供依据。     

水下航行体垂直出筒时水锤压力分析与研究

对航行体离筒后海水倒灌后形成的水锤效应进行了研究。 通过数据分析,描述了发射筒内产生的水锤压力现象,分析了水锤压力产生的机理,采用 CFD 分析方法对海水涌入发射筒后的流场特性和载荷特性进行了数值模拟计算;建立了水锤压力峰值估算模型,计算了航行体离筒速度和离筒时筒内压力的变化对发射筒底部压力的影响,得到不同工况条件下水锤效应的变化规律。     

Coupled Dynamic Response Analysis of A Multi-Column Tension-Leg-Type Floating Wind Turbine

This paper presents a coupled dynamic response analysis of a multi-column tension-leg-type floating wind turbine (WindStar TLP system) under normal operation and parked conditions. Wind-only load cases, wave-only load cases and combined wind and wave load cases were analyzed separately for the WindStar TLP system to identify the dominant excitation loads. Comparisons between an NREL offshore 5-MW baseline wind turbine installed on land and the WindStar TLP system were performed. Statistics of selected response variables in specified design load cases (DLCs) were obtained and analyzed. It is found that the proposed WindStar TLP system has small dynamic responses to environmental loads and it thus has almost the same mean generator power output under operating conditions as the land-based system. The tension mooring system has a sufficient safety factor, and the minimum tendon tension is always positive in all selected DLCs. The ratio of ultimate load of the tower base fore-aft bending moment for the WindStar TLP system versus the land-based system can be as high as 1.9 in all of the DLCs considered. These results will help elucidate the dynamic characteristics of the proposed WindStar TLP system, identify the difference in load effect between it and land-based systems, and thus make relevant modifications to the initial design for the WindStar TLP system.     

Small- and large-scale model tests on the buckling property of slender pile

Slender piles embedded in soft ground or liquefied soil may buckle under vertical load. In this paper, both small- and large-scale model tests are conducted to investigate the buckling mechanisms of a slender pile and the lateral earth pressure acting on the pile. To observe the buckling of a slender pile, the strain-controlled loading method is adopted to apply a vertical load. When the two ends of a slender pile are hinged, the buckling mechanisms of small- and large-scale model tests are same. It should be noted that this applies only to a system with a small ratio of pile bending stiffness to soil bending stiffness. An applied vertical load increases with an increasing pile head settlement until it reaches the critical buckling load. By further increasing the pile head settlement, the measured load approaches the critical buckling load. In the large-scale model test, the measured lateral earth pressure (i.e., active and passive) acting on the slender pile varies linearly with the lateral pile displacement when the measured range is 3–5?m beneath the ground. A critical buckling calculation method has been adopted to compare with the conventional “m” method. The two-sided earth pressure calculation method can achieve more approximate results with the model test.     

深海采矿立管在波流载荷下的弯矩响应分析

采矿立管是深海采矿系统的重要组成部分，立管的弯矩分析是确保立管正常使用的重要指标。立管所处海洋环境复杂，且立管底部的自由边界条件使得立管弯矩特性难以分析。本文基于波浪理论，使用Abaqus 有限元软件建立海洋采矿立管的模型，运用Abaqus中的AQUA海洋工程模块，考虑立管在轴向力、自重、浮力、波浪载荷、海流载荷及模拟海上平台水平和升沉运动共同作用下，对采矿立管进行弯矩分析，计算了提升泵不同安装位置、不同中继仓重量变化对弯矩的影响，结果表明：提升泵会增大安装位置的弯矩幅度，且安装在不同位置对立管弯矩会产生叠加影响；中继仓重量的增加提高了立管整体稳定性，但会使提升泵处弯矩波动产生向中部延伸的不利影响。     

玻纤增强柔性管等效简化模型研究

玻纤增强柔性管作为一种新型海底油气输送管道,具有比强度高、柔度大和抗腐蚀性强等特点,因此在深海油气开发中具有非常广阔的应用前景。玻纤增强柔性管主要由内衬层、增强层和外保护层组成,其中增强层的等效模拟是玻纤增强柔性管设计成功与否的关键。根据玻纤增强柔性管的结构特征和材料特性,选取了四种不同的等效简化模型,对比研究了玻纤增强柔性管在轴向拉压荷载、弯曲荷载以及内压荷载作用下的力学性能。将不同简化模型的计算结果与相应的试验数据进行对比,进行等效模型的优选。研究结果表明,在内压载荷和弯曲载荷作用下,基于Halpin-Tsai模型数值结果与试验结果最为接近。在轴向载荷作用下,采用分离式模型或回形模型计算精度更高,若材料达到屈服状态时,则建议采用分离式模型进行模拟。