Engineers India Limited

EXPANSION ANALYSIS OF SUBSEA PIPELINES

06.03.2020
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FORCES
There are four main factors contributing to the end forces and
expansion:

a) Thermal

b) Pressure

c) Poisson's contraction (caused by internal pressure)

d) Soil longitudinal resistance

THERMAL STRAIN
• Where totally unrestrained steel expands if temperature
increases

• Temperature difference is between installation and

operation.
THERMAL STRESS
• If totally constrained steel can not expand and therefore the effects
are seen as compressive stress in the pipe

• Thermal Stress Compressive is given by:

PRESSURE LOADS
Two potential effects:

• End cap force at curvature

• Poisson’s Effect

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END CAP FORCE
Force at a curvature

Fendcap = PΔ.Ai

Where,
PΔ is differential pressure
across pipe wall (N/m2)
Ai = is internal pipe CSA
PΔ = Pinternal - Phydrostatic
Ai = π.Di2/4

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END CAP STRESS AND STRAIN
• If unrestrained – tensile stress

σendcap = Fendcap / Asteel

Corresponding strain is

εendcap = σendcap /Esteel

• If restrained - end cap force is counteracted by restraining force

therefore no stress

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POISSON’S EFFECT
Internal pressure gives circumferential strain

Poisson’s effect gives resultant axial strain

• Circumferential expansion due to pressure gives axial
contraction

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POISSON’S EFFECT
If unrestrained
εpoisson = - ν. εhoop = - ν.σhoop/E

σpoisson = 0

If restrained – stress is tensile

εpoisson = 0

σpoisson = ν.σhoop

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COMBINED THERMAL & PRESSURE
Combining the thermal, pressure and Poisson effects gives
us the stresses and strains for the unrestrained the
restrained cases as shown below:
If unrestrained

Where

If restrained

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RESTRAINING FORCE
The force required to fully restrain the pipeline is

Combined Force = Thermal + Endcap – Poisson’s Stress

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END EXPANSION
• Expansion occurs at Pipeline Ends
• Friction acts to restrain movement
• Mid-pipeline fully restrained

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END EXPANSION SUBJECTS
• Location of virtual anchor
• Calculating expansion
• Expansion with varying temperature

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FRICTIONAL STRAIN
• Frictional Strain for Exposed Pipelines

• Frictional Strain for Buried Pipelines

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VIRTUAL ANCHOR
• Virtual Anchor – Point at which pipeline becomes fully
restrained
• Occurs where available friction force equals restraining force

• Friction force

• Total restraining force

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LENGTH OF VIRTUAL ANCHOR
• Rearranging gives length to virtual anchor, i.e. the ‘Active
Length’

• Temperature is assumed constant (insulated line)

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EXPANSION OF BURIED PIPE
• Friction force more complex
• Take account of depth of cover over pipe

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EXPANSION
Displacement is related to longitudinal strain by

Therefore total expansion found by integrating strain over length z

For constant temperature it gives a value:

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TEMPERATURE PROFILE
For non-insulated pipeline temperature will decrease along the line.
The temperature profile can be represented by exponential function:

λ thermal decay length

can also be defined as

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TEMPERATURE PROFILE
The temperature profile along the pipeline shall be calculated by
considering the heat transfer through the pipe wall. The empirical
formulae, method and criteria for computation of temperature profile
are as follows:
Outlet Temperature: The temperature at any distance, L, along the
pipeline is calculated as per equation below:
The temperature at any distance,
L, along the pipeline is calculated
as per equation below:

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HEAT TRANSFER COEFFICIENTS
The internal film heat transfer coefficient (hi) is calculated as follows:

The external film heat

The transfer coefficient
temperature (he) is given by:
at any distance,
L, along the pipeline is calculated
as per equation below:

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HEAT TRANSFER COEFFICIENT
Overall Heat Transfer Coefficient : The overall heat transfer coefficient
μ accounts for both convective and conductive heat transfer. The
equations for overall heat transfer coefficients for exposed and buried
pipelines are given below:
Exposed pipeline

Buried pipeline

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EXPANSION
The expansion is found by calculating a heat loss coefficient for the
pipeline using the inlet, outlet and ambient temperatures. An
exponentially decaying temperature profile is assumed. The passive
frictional strain opposes pressure and temperature strains.
Hot End Displacement buried pipeline

Hot End Displacement exposed pipeline

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EXPANSION
Cold End Displacement of buried pipeline

Cold End Displacement of exposed pipeline

Where

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THANK YOU

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