THERMAL BUCKLING ANALYSIS OF OFFSHORE PIPELINE USING

FINITE ELEMENT METHOD

Major Project Presentation
By
E. Bharath Kumar
(192MS006)
Under the guidance of
Dr. Vadivuchezhian Kaliveeran

Department of Water Resources and Ocean Engineering

National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal
Mangaluru-575025
• 1
Introduction

• Offshore pipelines are means of transportation used by oil and gas industries for extraction
transportation of oil.
• Owing to their location and the nature of forces acting on them offshore pipelines require highest
safety standards in their design, execution, operation and maintenance.

Subsea systems for oil production Gulf of Mexico On Fire: Caused By Undersea Pipeline Rupture

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Introduction

• The main reason for the failure of pipelines is buckling. Buckling is the sudden change in shape of a
structural component under load such as the bowing of a column under compression.
• Pipeline buckling analysis is a complex process involving many forces acting on the offshore pipelines
such as temperature, axial compression, flexure, pressure (internal pressure and external pressure),
ground features, geological features, pipe soil interaction and earthquake forces.

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Literature Review
Author name and year
Roger E. Hobbs (1984)
James G. A. Croll (1997)
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Objective
To investigate into analysis of pipeline •
buckling and study the influence of axial
loads and temperature on pipeline buckling.
• It was found that the stresses in
To study to formulate a simplified model of •
thermal buckling of subsea pipelines by
correlating buckling of railway lines with
buckling of clamped columns.
Remarks
Assumption of ideal pipelines with
perfect elasticity was incorporated
for his analysis
mode 3 lateral buckling are closer to
yield stress of steel.
Imperfections in pipelines were
studied by considering a simple
support and continuous support and
safe lower bound pressure at which
uplift occurs was derived by
considering the pipeline as a fixed
beam.
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Literature Review

Author name and year Objective Remarks

N. Ramachandra Rao and Dr. To improve structural properties of offshore • The optimum length of buckle
Vadivuchezhian Kaliveeran (2018) pipelines stiffened with rectangular pin arrestors was identified from finite
buckle arrestors by varying length and element analysis and pipeline models
placing them at different locations along the were fabricated for conducting
length of pipeline. buckling experiments.
• Finite element analysis results showed
good agreement with experimental
results.

Suraj Javali, Praveen J V, S R To research and predict methods on pipe • This research highlighted the
Ramesh, Dr T V Mallesh (2019) residual ultimate strength in terms of challenges to overcome effect of
experimental tests, numerical simulations and lateral and upheaval buckling using
analytical predictions. different stiffeners.

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 Research gap and Objectives

From the literature survey, it is seen that no study has been undertaken on the buckling of the offshore pipeline
because of the temperature difference inner and outer surfaces of the pipeline. The present work investigates
the effect of this type of loading condition on the pipeline and study the buckling behaviour.

The objectives of present study are

1. To carry out the Eigen value buckling analysis on the selected pipeline section using ANSYS software

2. To do analysis on pipeline models configured with different buckle arrestors using ANSYS and compare
with the other.

3. To select the best performing buckle arrestor model which can resist the buckling effectively.

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Methodology

Selection of Comparison
geometrical Fixing the of buckling
Performing Selection of
properties, element strength of
Eigen value best
Literature material shape size, different
buckling performing
review properties boundary buckle
analysis buckle
and conditions arrestors
using Ansys arrestor
dimensions and loading configuration
of pipeline. s

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Finite Element Analysis

Pipeline section
Let us consider a pipeline section with, Poisson’s ratio 0.3
•Outer diameter = 16 mm
Young’s modulus 197 GPa
•Inner diameter = 13 mm
•Thickness of pipe = 1.5 mm Density 7850 kg/m3
•Length of pipeline = 700 mm
13 mm

700 mm
16 mm

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Geometric Details of Buckle Arrestors

.
Dimensions of buckle arrestors (mm)
Buckle

  arrestor

Configurations Length Width Height length

(mm)

Simple pipeline Without Stiffeners

Longitudinal continuous 700

2 5 670
stiffener

4
Concrete coating 700 - 670

50
angular stiffener
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Water Resources and
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 Schematic Diagrams of Pipelines with Buckle Arrestors

670mm

Schematic diagram of longitudinal continuous stiffener Schematic diagram of angular stiffener

model. model.

670mm
4mm

700mm

Schematic diagram of concrete stiffener model

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Autocad Models Contd…

Finite element models of pipeline without buckle arrestors

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Autocad Models Contd…

Finite element models of pipeline stiffened with longitudinal continuous stiffeners

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Autocad Models Contd…

Finite element models of pipeline stiffened with concrete layer

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Autocad Models

Finite element models of pipeline stiffened with triangular stiffener

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Element for Analysis

There are basically two types of elements available in ANSYS

• A linear element, or a lower order element is characterized by a linear shape function.

• A quadratic element, or a higher order element utilizes a non-linear shape function. The
displacements between the nodes are interpolated using a higher order polynomial.

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Element for Analysis

• The linear elements do not accurately model the curvature present in the actual material under bending,
and a shear stress is introduced.

• The additional shear stress in the element (which does not occur in the actual beam) causes the element to
reach equilibrium with smaller displacements, i.e., it makes the element appear to be stiffer than it
actually is and gives bending displacements smaller than they should be.
• For modeling and meshing offshore pipelines, SOLID186
elements were considered to study deformation along X,
Y and Z axes (u, v and w). SOLID186 is a higher order
three dimensional solid element that shows quadratic
displacement behaviour and is characterized by 20 nodes
having three degrees of freedom per node and
translations along the x, y, and z directions.

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Boundary Conditions

• Boundary conditions considered for Finite Element Analysis are

Co-ordinates of ends (x, y, z) Boundary conditions

(0, 0, 0) u≠0, v=0, w≠0, θx=0, θy=0, θz=0

(0, 700, 0) u =0, v=0, w=0, θx=0, θy=0, θz=0

Z-axis

Y-axis

X-axis
(0, 700, 0) (0, 0, 0)

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Loading

Langeled transport system is to transport gas produced from the Ormen Lange Field in Norway to market
delivery points in the UK and Continental Europe.

Langeled pipeline location( north sea) Langeled pipeline depth data

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Loading

• Thermocline, oceanic water layer in which water temperature

decreases rapidly with increasing depth.
• By using thermocline of north sea the external surface
temperature of considered is 6°C.

Outer surface temperature Water column of central North sea

profiles based on high-resolution MSS
profiles

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Loading

• The main purpose of offshore pipelines is for transportation of oil. When oil is pumped out from
reservoir temperatures can be well above 100 degrees Celsius
• The oil is cooled on its way to the destination due to heat transfer, . The temperature drop decreases
the solubility of the components reduce and paraffin wax precipitates and water condensates.
• A typical Wax appearing temperature (WAT) can be around 40-60 °C. Hence for the flow temperature
of oil is assumed to be 80°C . This ensures that the inner surface of pipeline to be maintained at 80°C.

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Meshing

Convergence: Mesh convergence determines how many elements are required in a model to ensure that
the results of an analysis are not affected by changing the size of the mesh. System response (stress,
deformation) will converge to a repeatable solution with decreasing element size.
100

99 • For the present analysis convergence

Buckling temperature (°C)

98
study shows that the buckling
97

96 temperature for the mesh in arrange

95

94
of 2 mm-10 mm gives fairly similar
93 results. Hence adopting a mesh size
92
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
of 7 mm
mesh size (mm)

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Meshing of Pipelines With Different Buckle Arrestors

Solid element mesh of plain pipeline, pipeline stiffened with longitudinal continuous stiffeners, pipeline
stiffened with angular stiffener and pipeline stiffened with concrete lining. (clockwise from right top)
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Finite Element Analysis Results

• For a linear buckling analysis, the eigenvalue problem below is solved to get the buckling load
multiplier λi and buckling mode ψi

[K]+λi [S]{ψi}=0

• The response on loading {F} is a linear function of λi (assumption of eigen value buckling analysis)

Then critical buckling temperature of the pipeline given by

Tcr = load multiplier × (Ti – Te )

Where

Te =environment temperature= outer surface temperature

Ti = inner surface temperature

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Ansys Results Contd…

Buckling of Pipe Model without Buckle arrestors Load multiplier = 1.2903

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Ansys Results Contd…

Buckling of Pipe Model with Longitudinal Continuous Buckle arrestors. Load multiplier = 66.582

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Ansys Results Contd…

Buckling of Pipe Model with concrete lining Buckle arrestors. Load multiplier = 1.5404

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Ansys Results

Buckling of Pipe Model with Angular Buckle arrestors. Load multiplier = 1.3001

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Sample Calculations

For plain pipeline

internal surface temperature = 80ºC
environment temperature = 6ºC
load multiplier = 1.2903
Buckling temperature = 1.2903*(80-6) = 95.482°C

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 Validation of Results

• For a considered length and dimension of pipeline with similar boundary conditions the critical
buckling temperature should not vary with change in the input temperature loading.
• Hence for results validation considering input internal surface temperature as obtained critical buckling
temperature (Tcr) 95.48°C for a plain pipeline model.

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Validation of Results

Tcr = load multiplier × (Ti – Te ) Load multiplier = 1.0671

Tcr = 1.0671× (95.48-6)

Tcr = 95.484°C
From the above used equation the critical buckling temperature did not change. We can state that the results
obtained are correct.
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Summary of Buckling Analysis Results

Critical Buckling temperature ( °C ) % Increase of

No Models
(FE Analysis) temperature

1 No Stiffeners 95.482 -

Continuous
2 4927.068 51.60 %
Rectangular Pin

3 Concrete lining 113.989 1.194 %

4 Angular 96.207 1.008 %

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Variation of critical buckling load of pipeline model stiffened with different
types of buckle arrestors.
6000

4927.068

5000
Buckling temperature(°C)

4000

3000

2000

1000

95.482 113.989
96.207
0
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5

no stiffeners rectangular stiffeners concrete lining Angular stiffeners

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• From the analysis results obtained the pipeline with continuous rectangular pin buckle arrestors is
exhibiting superior buckling resisting properties compared to other models.
• But the buckling temperature obtained is far from achievable temperatures in physical world.

• Hence further modelling and analyzing rectangular pin buckle arrestor configurations with
modifications.
• The different configurations and their dimensions have been further discussed.

• The same boundary conditions and loading conditions have been used to do the analysis.

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Geometrical details of rectangular pin buckle arrestors.

Dimensions of buckle arrestors (in mm)

 

Pipe models
Length Width Height

Model 1 Without Stiffeners

Model 2 150 2 5

Model 3 420 2 5

Model 4 670 2 5

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Schematic Diagram of Pipelines with different Configurations of Buckle
Arrestors

pipeline model stiffened with longitudinal continuous pipeline stiffened with centrally placed stiffener and two
stiffeners. stiffeners at ends

pipeline stiffened with centrally placed stiffeners

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Meshing of pipelines with buckle arrestors at different locations

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Ansys Results Contd…

Buckling of Pipe Model with Longitudinal Continuous Buckle arrestors Load multiplier = 66.582

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Ansys Results Contd…

Buckling of Pipe Model with centrally placed stiffener and two stiffeners at ends
Load multiplier = 5.1687

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Ansys Results

Buckling of Pipe Model with centrally placed stiffener Load multiplier = 1.3019

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Summary of Buckling Analysis Results

Critical Buckling temperature ( °C ) % Increase of

No Models
(FE Analysis) temperature

1 No Stiffeners 95.482 -

Continuous
2 4927.068 51.60 %
Rectangular Pin

centrally placed stiffener and

3 382.58 4.006 %
two stiffeners at ends

with centrally placed

4 96.348 1.001 %
stiffener

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Variation of critical buckling load of pipeline model stiffened with and without
buckle arrestors of varying length and location.

6000

5000
Buckling Temperature (°C)

4000

3000

2000

1000

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
length of buckle arrestors (mm)

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CONCLUSIONS

1. From the results obtained, the centrally placed buckle arrestor showed a very marginal increase in
buckling temperature. Whereas continuous buckle arrestor showed an increase of 51.6%. But it is not
possible in practise for the temperature in the pipeline to reach up to 4700°C. Using continuous
buckle arrestors will be over designing and also material wastage.

2. Centrally placed stiffener and two stiffeners at ends showed an increase of 4% and it resists a
temperature that is possible to be achieved. So longitudinal buckle arrestor (420mm length) with
centrally placed and two end placed stiffeners are suggestible

Scope for future work

• The present study can be conducted with different pipeline materials.

• Experimental studies can be conducted on the suggested models.

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References

● Langeled OMAY22-DTI Environmental Statement

● Estimation of new production in the North Sea: consequences for temporal and spatial variability of
phytoplankton ICES Journal of Marine Science, 55: 574–580. 1998Article No. jm980402
● Finite element modeling and experimental validation of rectangular pin buckle arrestors for offshore
pipelines N. Ramachandra Rao & Vadivuchezhian Kaliveeran
● T. A. Netto & S. F. Estefen Buckle Arrestors for Deepwater Pipelines Federal University of Rio de
Janeiro,Marine Structures 9 (1996) 873-883
● ANSYS®, "Element Library," in ANSYS® Release 17.1, Help System, Mechanical APDL, Element
Reference, Element Library: ANSYS, Inc.
● ANSYS®, "Types of Buckling Analyses," in ANSYS® Release 17.1, Help System, Mechanical
APDL, Structural Analysis Guide, Buckling Analysis: ANSYS, Inc.

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References

● ANSYS®, "Eigenvalue Buckling Analysis," in ANSYS®,Release 17.1, Help System, Mechanical

Applications, Mechanical User's Guide, Analysis Types, Linear Dynamic Analysis Types: ANSYS, Inc.
● Zechao Zhang 1 , Hongbo Liu 1 and Zhihua Chen, Lateral Buckling Theory and Experimental Study on
Pipe-in-Pipe Structure.
● Analysis and design of inclined buckle arrestors for offshore pipeline N. Ramachandra Rao,
Vadivuchezhian Kaliveeran.

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