A lateral global buckling failure envelope for a high temperature and high pressure (HT/HP) submarine pipeline

Abstract Submarine pipelines are the primary component of an offshore oil transportation system. Under operating conditions, a pipeline is subjected to high temperatures and pressures to improve oil mobility. As a result, additional stress accumulates in pipeline sections, which causes global buckling. For an exposed deep-water pipeline, lateral buckling is the major form of this global buckling. Large lateral displacement causes a very high bending moment which may lead to a local buckling failure in the pipe cross-section. This paper proposes a lateral global buckling failure envelope for deep-water HT/HP pipelines using a numerical simulation analysis. It analyzes the factors influencing the envelope, including the thickness t, diameter D, soil resistance coefficient μ, calculating length Lf, imperfection length L and imperfection amplitude V. Equations to calculate the failure envelope are established to make future post-buckling pipeline failure assessment more convenient. The results show that (1) the limit pressure difference pmax (the failure pressure difference for a post-buckling pipeline when it suffers no difference in temperature) is usually below the burst pressure difference pb (which is the largest pressure difference a pipeline can bear and is determined from the strength and sectional dimensions of the pipeline) and is approximately 0.62–0.75 times the value of pb and (2) thickness t has little influence on the normalized envelopes, but affects pmax. The diameter D, soil resistance coefficient μ, and calculating length Lf influence the maximum failure temperature difference Tmax (the failure temperature difference for a pipeline suffering no pressure difference). The diameter D also significantly affects the form of the normalized envelope.