Multi-point Lift of Offshore Pipeline

This paper presents a procedure for static analysis of an offshore pipeline during a lifting operation. The procedure depends on a finite element method in which the deformation is defined in terms of rotations at nodal points. A numerical example based on single point lift on continuous pipe shows good agreement with published solutions. The multi-point lift model described enables the user to prescribe cable loads, or displacements at the lift points, or cable shortening. It is established that convergence to the solution of a specific problem is obtained for all choices of prescribed input data.