Proceedings of the Nineteenth (2009) International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference

Osaka, Japan, June 21-26, 2009

Copyright 2009 by The International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE)
ISBN 978-1-880653-53-1 (Set); ISSN 1098-618

Free Span Dynamics versus Global Buckling of the High Pressure and High Temperature Pipeline
Jason Sun, Paul Jukes, Gang Duan

Advanced Engineering Group, JP Kenny Incorporation

Houston, Texas, USA

ABSTRACT

termed as Vortex Induced Vibration (VIV). Long term VIV can lead to
material fatigue. Some free spans, if not predicted and evaluated
properly, will negatively affect pipeline integrity, leading to expensive
remediation and intervention works.

According to the design codes, the pipeline free spans dynamics/fatigue

can be screened and analyzed as isolated single span with single mode
or multi-mode response and interactive multi-spans with single mode or
multi-mode response. The common practice is to analysis the thermal
expansion/global buckling and free span independently while DNVRP-F105 recommended considering the interactive effects. The
longitudinal loads under the thermal expansion are provided for the free
span analysis but the spans are assumed not going to change from
isolate to interactive. Since the pipeline responses due to the thermal
expansion will be most likely a displacement control at the span
locations, flowline global buckling in a downhill manner will not be as
severe as the lateral or upheaval buckling but it may change the free
span behavior, such as a single free span to a multi-span. The purpose
of this work is to use Simulator, an in-house finite element analysis
tool based on ABAQUS, to establish the relationship between the
pipeline free span dynamics and the thermal expansion/global buckling
under the high pressure and high temperature conditions. Both single
pipeline and Pipe-in-Pipe flowline are considered. The analysis focused
on the conditions that may enhance the pipeline Feed-In into the span
and the variations of effective axial load at the free span locations. As
a unique lateral buckling and free span interactive case, the dynamics
of sleeper span was also investigated. This work intends to realistically
analyze the free span behavior with the involvements of global
buckling under the high pressure and high temperature condition and to
degrade the uncertainty during the free span analysis.

It is important to adopt an appropriate methodology to identify

potential damage that could occur with the existence of pipeline spans.
The integrity of a pipeline can then be evaluated with confidence in
order to make a decision for the future service status of the pipeline.
The fundamental is to understand the dynamics of free spans.
The pressure and temperature of the oil and gas contents coming out of
the deeper ground or seabed are normally higher, and this can be a key
challenge for pipeline design. HP/HT (High Pressure and High
Temperature), with pressures in the order of 700bar (10,000psi), and
temperatures being considered up to 170C (350F) are not uncommon
in Golf of Mexico (GoM). High pressure and high temperature
reservoirs are typically, but not exclusively, gas condensate fields.
They are technically more complex to develop because of the
inherently higher energy in the well fluid. High Pressure (HP) has a
major impact on the design of wellhead and other equipment, such as
manifold valves, in terms of strength, materials and reliability. For
piping, flowline and riser, HP can also lead to very significant wall
thicknesses. Equipment manufacture and linepipe fabrication and
installation become more complex. High Temperature (HT) has much
wider impact, as the whole system has to operate over a greater
temperature range between non-producing situations, such as
installation and shut down, and the operational case.

KEY WORDS: Free span; global buckling; high pressure and high

For tie-back production flowline, key concerns are the thermal

expansion and global bar buckling [2]. From flow assurance stand of
point, the product needs to be kept hot in order to avoid wax and
hydrate formation. To accomplish this, the flowline has to be coated
with exceptional insulation materials. Flowline steel material expands
significantly during such high temperature operation. Excessive
flowline expansion at tie-in spool location combined with the pressure
and temperature load that a spool is subjected to may cause the spool to
fail due to the combined stress over the pipe yield strength. When the
flowline expansion is partially or fully constrained by the seabed soil
friction and the anchoring force of the subsea structure, high level of
effective (compressive) axial force can be generated on the flowline
that will cause the flowline to buckle globally if the lateral or vertical
imperfections exist. Uncontrolled global buckling could result in local
buckling or collapse and thermal cyclic ratcheting/fatigue in a flowline,

temperature; mode shape; natural frequency; Pipe-in-Pipe; pipeline;

sleeper; thermal expansion.

INTRODUCTION
Free spans occur when a pipeline is laid on a rough undulating seabed
or when subsea crossings are unavoidable. Sleepers, the artificial
upsets, are sometimes installed under the pipeline in order to mitigate
the thermal expansion [1] by encouraging the global buckling due to
high operation pressure and temperature in a controlled manner. Free
spans need to be evaluated as they are subjected to high level of static
stresses due to bending caused by the gravity and compression which
can be a dominant load for the fully restrained flowline under high
pressure and high temperature. Suspended spans will also vibrate as the
dynamic loads such as wave and current imposed on them, in a manner

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