Global lateral buckling analysis of idealized subsea pipelines

In order to avoid the curing effects of paraffin on the transport process and reduce the transport difficulty, usually high temperature and high pressure are used in the transportation of oil and gas. The differences of temperature and pressure cause additional stress along the pipeline, due to the constraint of the foundation soil, the additional stress can not release freely, when the additional stress is large enough to motivate the submarine pipelines buckle. In this work, the energy method is introduced to deduce the analytical solution which is suitable for the global buckling modes of idealized subsea pipeline and analyze the relationship between the critical buckling temperature, buckling length and amplitude under different high-order global lateral buckling modes. To obtain a consistent formulation of the problem, the principles of virtual displacements and the variation calculus for variable matching points are applied. The finite element method based on elasto-plastic theory is used to simulate the lateral global buckling of the pipelines under high temperature and pressure. The factors influencing the lateral buckling of pipelines are further studied. Based upon some actual engineering projects, the finite element results are compared with the analytical ones, and then the influence of thermal stress, the section rigidity of pipeline, the soil properties and the trigging force to the high order lateral buckling are discussed. The method of applying the small trigging force on pipeline is reliable in global buckling numerical analysis. In practice, increasing the section rigidity of a pipeline is an effective measure to improve the ability to resist the global buckling.

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