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Qualification of a Flexible Riser for Deepwater Dynamic Applications

N.-J. Rishej Nielsen, NKT Cables, Frank W. Grealish, MCS International, Tim O'Sullivan, MCS International.

1996, NKT commenced production of flexible pipe from

their new factory in Kalundborg, Denmark. The NKT pipe
design is largely based on the designs developed and
qualified by Furakawa [3, 4, 5], which uses the unique Cshaped wires for the pressure armour layer. Furakawa has
previously performed extensive qualification tests on this
pipe design, including both static and dynamic tests.
In 1997, NKT commenced a qualification programme to
verify their pipe. The qualification programme is intended
to verify the pipe design, design methodologies and
manufacturing procedures.
This paper describes the'
qualification programme, in particular related to a high
pressure 10-inch ID pipe for deep water severe environment
applications.

Copyright 1998, Offshore Technology Conference

This paper was prepared for presentation at the 1998 Offshore Technology Conference
held in Houston, Texas, 4-7 May 1998.
This paper was selected for presentation by the OTC Program Committee following review
of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s), Contents of the paper,
as presented, have not been reviewed by the Offshore Technology Conference and are
subject to correction by the author(s), The material, as presented, does not necessarily
reflect any position of the Offshore Technology Conference or its officers. Electronic
reproduction, distribution, or storege of any part of this paper for commercial purposes
without the written consent of the Offshore Technology Conference is prohibited.
Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words;
illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of
where and by whom the paper was presented.

Abstract

As the offshore oil industry continues to move into deeper

waters,
there is an increasing requirement for the
development and qualification of technologies to enable this
expansion into deep water. Most of these developments are
currently based on semi-sub or tanker based floating
production systems, which use flexible risers for production,
export and injection services. The continuing qualification
of flexible risers for higher pressures/temperatures, deeper
water depths and more severe load conditions is critical to
the future success of deep water field developments.
This paper describes the qualification of a lO-inch
internal diameter, 4000 psi flexible riser for dynamic
applications in the severe Northern North Sea environmental
conditions. Results from static and dynamic prototype tests
are presented and compared with analytical results. The
tests performed on the riser include collapse, axial tension,
burst and dynamic bending fatigue tests.
The philosophies and methodologies used in the
qualification process are discussed and compared with the
requirements and guidelines in the most recent standards for
flexible pipe, namely API Spec 17J [I] and API RP 17B [2],

Qualification Programme Objectives

The overall objective of conducting a qualification
programme for flexible risers is to verify and document
quality, reliability and safety of the pipe products to prove
that they are suitable for use according to the specified
design requirements. To fully qualify a dynamic riser, due
attention must be given to the applied design philosophy,
long term performance characteristics of the materials (in
particular polymers), fabrication means and methods, as
well as the conduction of relevant material and performance
tests.
The present riser qualification programme is part of a
Type Approval Certification carried out by Bureau Veritas
according to API Spec 17J [I], including verification of
calculation' tools, review of design rules, investigation of
material dossier and fabrication methods, acceptance of
QAJQC procedures, as well as undertaking performance
tests to correlate with predictions. The riser test programme
consists of:

Introduction
In recent years floating production systems (FPS/FPSO)
have being increasingly used for the development of
offshore oil and gas fields, in particular for small reservoir
fields in shallow waters and fields in deep waters from
300m water depth and greater. A key component of FPS
technology is the riser systems, which have been
predominantly unbonded flexible risers. Flexible pipe is
also used widely for flowline systems, in particular wellhead
and manifold tie-backS to the FPS systems.
To meet the increased demand for this project the flexible
pipe industry is expanding manufacturing capacity. In

Hydrostatic burst pressure test

Hydrostatic collapse test
Axial tension test
Bending stiffness test
Crush strength test
Dynamic fatigue test (in-plane bending and rotary
bending testing)

These tests are performed in accordance with the guidelines

given in the draft API 17B, Second Edition [2].

N.-J. R. NIELSEN, F.W. GREALISH. T. O'SULLIVAN

Also, testing is performed to establish data to be used in

fatigue prediction models, including:

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equal to 90% of the capacity and thereby qualify both

the pipe design and fatigue analysis methodology. At the
end of the two million cycles the pipe will be subjected
to a hydrotest at 1.5 times design pressure to c o n f i the
structural integrity of the pipe. After completion of the
initial two million cycles the pipe may then be cycled to
failure.

- S-N curves of tensile armour wires

- Performance characteristics of pressure armour wires (Cprofiles)
Wear characteristics of individual layers
- Friction coefficients between the individual layers
-

Riser Description
Pipe Design. The main specification of the riser in the
qualification programme is as follows:

The methodology for developing the in-plane dynamic

fatigue test programme is largely based on the
recommendations in the draft of API RP 17B, Second
Edition [2] with the primary objective to verify the
structural integrity and fatigue characteristics of the flexible
pipe, including end fitting and bend stiffener, under
simulated operational conditions. Figure 1 presents a
flowchart showing the development of the test regime, from
the initial pipe and riser design to the final test programme.
This identifies the tools required at each stage in the process.
The critical philosophies in developing the test programme
into the Test Acceleration Tool and Test Programme
Definition Tool are as follows; with these philosophies
being largely supplementary to the guidelines given in the
draft RP [2]:

Size
- 10-inch ID (254 mm)
Bore
- Rough
Design Pressure
- 4,000 psi (27.6 MPa)
Design Temperature - 95OC
Water Depth
- Minimum 5OOm
Design Life
- 25 years
Application
- Extreme environment
dynamic applications
The selected riser design comprises the main structural
components: Carcass, internal pressure sheath, pressure
armour, cross wound tensile armour and outer sheath,
resulting in an outer pipe diameter of 357mm (14 inches).
Details of the cross section design are presented in Table 1
and a schematic is presented in Fig. 2.

1. The total number of test cycles to be used is two million,

with these representing the two million cycles of highest
loading from the 25 year design life (total number of
cycles in the 25 years is approximately 100 million
cycles).

Riser System. One aspect of the strategy taken for the

qualification programme is to perform the detailed design of
a riser configuration for the selected application and use this
as a basis for the dynamic test. The design of the riser
system was undertaken by MCS International. Based on
previous experience and an assessment of the relevant
advantages and disadvantages of the potential riser
configurations, a lazy wave configuration is selected for this
application.
The riser design configuration is shown in Figure 3. The
main advantages of the lazy wave configuration are ease of
installation (critical to deep water applications) and the
compliance in the riser system. Relatively large vessel
offsets (up to %30%of the water depth) can be absorbed by
this configuration, reducing the design requirements for the
mooring system. The main concern with the lazy wave
configuration is the stability of the riser in transverse
currents, when large out-of-plane motions of the riser can be
experienced. This increases the spacing required between
adjacent risers. To ensure the transverse stability of the riser,
its drag diameter to apparent weight ratio (DdAW) is
reduced to 3.5 m2/tonne (empty pipe). A DdAW value
approaching 3.0 will be relatively stable, while values above
5.0 would be subject to large motions.

2. Six load cases are used in the test programme, with Load
Case 1 using one million cycles approximately and the
remaining Load Case 2 to 6 using a fiuther one million
cycles. The pipe is designed such that the stresses in
Load Case 1 are below the Goodman Line in the Haigh
diagram for the armour wire. Therefore, it is
representative to use the one million cycles in Load Case
1 to simulate all load cycles which induce lower fatigue
loading on the pipe, these being the vast majority of
cycles that the pipe will experience. The load cycles
simulated by Load Case 2 to 6 are therefore the only
cycles which will induce fatigue damage in the armour
wires.
3. A dynamic fatigue test may be used to qualify a
particular design or to verify the fatigue analysis
procedures. In the fust case, the actual in-service
operational loads over the design life are simulated. No
failure of the pipe should occur, as the required factor
of safety on fatigue life is 10 and therefore the test
programme should only use up to 10% of the total
fatigue capacity of the pipe. In the second case the pipe
is cycled to failure, s o a s to verify the fatigue analysis
procedures (and also design and manufacturing
procedures). The philosophy taken for the PMI dynamic
fatigue test is in between these two extremes. The fatigue
test programme is derived to induce damage in the pipe

Design Results. The load cases for the design are selected
based on the guidelines given in the draft API RP 17B
Second Edition [2]. This standard was recently developed
in a joint industry project led by MCS International. A
10

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QUALIFICATION OF A FLEXIBLE RISER FOR DEEPWATER DYNAMIC APPLICATIONS

Dynamic Qualification Tests

General. Two dynamic fatigue prototype tests are being
performed in this qualification programme. The main test is
the in-plane fatigue test of the 10-inch ID riser which is
described in detail in this paper. Furthermore, a rotary
bending fatigue test is performed on a 6-inch ID riser.
Summary details of this test are given in the following
section.

summary of the main results from the extreme load case

analyses is presented in Table 2. The results in Table 2 are
from regular wave (10-2/yearprobability) analyses using the
MCS International 3D nonlinear finite element program
Flexcom3D [7]. The range of vessel offsets considered for
the design (*11Om) covers most expected FPS applications
in this water depth (500m).
The next stage in the riser design is to perform a global
fatigue analysis, which is based on use of regular wave load
cases. The load cases are selected from the seastate scatter
diagram for Northern North Sea conditions. Seven cases in
both Near and Far load directions are identified and are
presented in Table 3. The number of occurrences specified
for each wave class is based on the 25 year design life. A
summary of the results from the global fatig re analyses is
presented in Table 4. Fatigue calculations b, sed on these
global results, and using the methodology desc ibed later in
this paper, give a fatigue life for the riser of 543 years. This
meets the design requirement to achieve a factor of safety of
10 on the design life [l], i.e. a fatigue life greater than 250
years.

Rotary Bending Fatigue Test. Rotary bending fatigue

testing is a commonly used method for determining the
fatigue life of flexible pipes [5,6]. In May 1997 a rotary
bending fatigue test was commenced at NKT using a 9 m
long 6-inch ID flexible riser pressurised to the design
pressure of 276 bar (4,000 psi). Refer to Fig. 4 for a
description of the test rig and to Table 1 for details of the
pipe cross section. The objective of performing this fatigue
test is to compare the dynamic behaviour of the 6-inch riser
with test results from similar testing [5]. Furthermore, the
test is suitable for calibration of fatigue prediction models
owing to the relatively simple test condition where a
constant pipe curvature can be used during the entire test
period. Also, investigation concerning the integrity of the
individual layers at end of testing, in particular the anti-wear
layers, will be of unique value.
Methodology. The testing is focused on determining the
behaviour of the pipe itself and is considered to represent
the conditions of a flexible pipe in the riser sag bend area.
The advantage of this test method as compared to in-plane
bending test is the relative simple test set-up as well as the
possibility of carrying out an accelerated test.
The test is performed by imposing the pipe a prescribed
curvature and rotating it around the neutral axis of the pipe.
For the present test a bending radius of 20 m was adopted.
Consequently, each rotation subjects the pipe to bending
loads around the entire circumference which ultimately may
result in fatigue failure of the pipe, e.g. in the tensile annour
wires. It is expected that the inner layer of the tensile annour
wires will fail in fatigue first, as this layer experiences
slightly larger cyclic stresses than the outer tensile layer.
Hydraulic oil was used as test fluid. The pipe was
equipped with a pressure gauge and a temperature probe
inside the pipe bore as well as on the outer sheath. The
number of rotations were monitored using two independent
methods, i.e. a meter based upon the induction principle and
a mechanical counter. The temperature of the pipe is
governed by the rotational speed, contact pressure and
friction between the layers. The test was carried out whilst
maintaining an internal pressure close to the design pressure
and limiting the internal temperature to about 50C.
Results. Extrapolation of test results [5] indicated that the
pipe should fail at approximately 1 million cycles. However,
numerical analysis showed this to be a lower limit and that
the pipe most probably would not fail until having been
subjected to at least 3 million cycles, depending upon the
interlayer contact pressure and friction. At 1.3 million cycles
the pipe was subjected to a hydrostatic pressure test at 1.5
times the design pressure, i.e. 414 bar (6,000 psi), to
document the pipe integrity. At about 3.3 million cycles the

Static Qualification Tests

The draft M I FU' 17B [2] lists a variety of static tests which
may be carried out to verify the capability of flexible pipes.
Burst, axial tension and hydrostatic collapse tests are
classified in M I FU' 17B as standard prototype tests (Class I
tests), i.e. tests which are most commonly used.
The static qualification programme undertaken by NKT
uses Class I tests as a basis, supplemented by bending
stiffness and crush strength tests. A brief description will be
presented in the following of burst and axial tension
performance tests which have been carried out on pipes with
an internal diameter ranging from 2.5-inch to 10-inch.
These pipes are equipped with instrumentation to obtain
as much information from the testing as practically possible.
Normally, the following data are recorded:

Internal pressure

- Temperature of pipe

Elongation of pipe using two independent measuring

inethods
Change of pipe circumference
Rotation of free end of pipe sample
Strain in selected outer tensile armour wires
Strain in essential structural end fitting components

The qualification testing is carried out in two steps. First

a hydrostatic pressure test at 1.5 times the design pressure is
performed over a 24 hours period to document the integrity
of pipe and end fitting structure. Thereafter, the burst or
tension test is conducted, including proper conditioning of
the pipe sample by pressure cycling between zero and the
design pressure up to 20 times. The certifying authority is
provided with predictions of the test results prior to
conduction of the performance test. A comparison between
predictions and obtained test results is presented in Table 5
showing good and consistent agreement. Following the
testing the pipe samples are dissected.
11

N.-J. R. NIELSEN, F.W. GREALISH, T. O'SULLIVAN

noise level and temperature of the pipe increased

significantly indicating that failure had been initiated. No
leakage was yet obtained at the time of writing. Once
fatigue failure of the pipe is achieved, the pipe will be
dissected and results presented.

In-plane Bending Fatigue. The in-plane bending fatigue

test commenced in January 1998, with the objective of
qualifying an 10-inch ID riser with a design pressure of 276
bar (4,000 psi) for dynamic applications at water depths of
at least 500m. The prototype pipe will be subjected to two
million cycles over a four month test period. The riser is
fitted with a bend stiffener at one end fitting. Figure 5
shows the 10-inch ID riser sample in the fatigue test rig.
The qualification test programme has been established on
the basis of load cases taken from a field development
located in the Northern North Sea at 500m water depth
comprising of a turret moored tanker based floating
production system. The fatigue testing shall document that
the riser performance correlates with the predictions
corresponding to at least 25 years design life. The following
sub-sections describe the test set-up, methodology and
fatigue analysis results.
Test Set-Up. The dynamic prototype test is being performed
at the PMI Industries facility in Cleveland, Ohio. A
schematic of the rig is shown in Fig. 5. The pipe sample is
f ~ e at
d the base at an angle of up to 10" from the vertical.
The top of the pipe sample is connected to an upper
termination mounting assembly. The top assembly is
supported by an A-frame. Hydraulic power and a solid state
proportional control valve, driven by a function generator,
produces a smooth sinusoidal motion of the A-frame
structure, providing rotation of the riser about its base
support. The A-frame carries a pair of suspended cylinders
which are gimbal-mounted to the top end of the pipe
sample. These tensioning cylinders are connected to two
large accumulators that maintain near constant tension in the
pipe. The main specifications for the test rig capacity are as
follows:
Maximum Tension
Maximum Rotation
Max. Internal Working Pres.
Typical Cycling Rate

- 70 tomes
- k25"

345 bar (5,000 psi)

k 5" rotation

- 10 cpm at

Test Methodology. The methodology for the determination

of the load case matrix for the dynamic prototype test is
largely based on the global analyses referred to above. The
selection of the load case matrix for the prototype test is
made in such a way as to reflect the behaviour of the riser in
expected service conditions. This means that the angles and
tensions selected for the prototype test load case matrix
should represent the angles and tensions which the riser
would be expected to experience during the course of its
life.
Table 6 presents the load case matrix for the prototype
test in terms of cyclic angles and applied tensions. The
constant tension of 70 tonnes represents the upper limit of

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the test rig's capacity. While the maximum tension

experienced by the riser from the global fatigue analyses is
reasonably close to the capacity of the test rig, the tensions
experienced by the riser in the lower sea states are close to
50% of the capacity. However, the maximum tension
capacity of the rig is used for all test load cases to provide
for a more stringent test programme. The cyclic angles
presented in Table 6 are derived from the angles presented
in Table 4 from the global fatigue analyses.
The maximum angle variation specified for this test is
15". This includes a static 5" initial offset thereby giving a
cyclic rotation of - 10" to +20. Note that due to this limit on
the maximum rig angle load cases 6 and 7 are effectively
grouped together for the fatigue analyses.
To better represent the riser in actual service conditions
and to provide a method for controlling the peak curvatures
a bend stiffener is designed for the riser connection to the
base of the test rig. The bend stiffener is designed based on
the maximum tensions and angles the riser experiences
when subjected to the environmental loading described in
Table 3.
The prototype test is designed so that the pipe will incur
90% damage after completion of the full test regime. This
level of damage is significant for a prototype test and is
selected primarily to impose more stringent limits for the
qualification programme. This test regime is primarily
achieved by reducing the size of the bend stiffener, until
pipe curvatures and wire stresses are obtained which result
in the target damage in the armour wires being achieved.

Fatigue Analysis. The input data into the fatigue analyses

for the armour wires of the riser consists of pipe curvatures,
tensions and the pressure exerted on the tensile armour
wires from the intermediate polymer liner due to the design
internal fluid pressure of 27.6 MPa. The methodology
employed to predict the stresses in the tensile armour wires
of the pipe accounts for pipe bending, pipe tension and inter
layer friction. The fatigue analysis procedure is based on
the methodology presented by Fuku et al [ 5 ] . Fatigue test
data for the armour wires of the test pipe are available as a
S-N curve, from which to calculate cycles to failure as a
function of stress. Once the stresses in the armour wires are
calculated these data are used to calculate the respective
number of cycles to failure of the wire. From this the
percentage damage is obtained, using a Palmgren-Miner
summation procedure.
To generate the required input for calculating the armour
wire stresses a Flexcom3D model of the riser and bend
stiffener in the test rig is used. For each load case presented
in Table 6 a Flexcom3D analysis is carried out to obtain the
peak curvatures in the pipe. Table 7 presents these
curvatures along with the results from the fatigue analyses
in terms of number of cycles to failure. In addition, the %
damage is given as the number of cycles in 25 years (from
the sea state discritisation) divided by the number of cycles
to failure. Note the cumulative damage from all load cases
is 89.75%.
The cumulative damage presented in Table 7 is obtained
after several iterations on the bend stiffener design. By

OTC 8605

QUALIFICATIONOF A FLEXIBLE RISER FOR DEEPWATER DYNAMIC APPLICATIONS

altering the bend stiffener design the peak curvatures in the

pipe increased accordingly. Therefore, the required armour
wire damage is achieved with the load case matrix specified
in Table 6 by iterating on the bend stiffener dimensions until
the cumulative damage of all the load cases amounted to
90%.

Conclusions
The following are the main conclusions from the
qualification test programme described in this paper:
1. The qualification programme for the NKT pipe design is
described, including both static and dynamic prototype
tests. The programme is based on the guidelines given
in the new draft API RP 17B and represents the most
recent implementation of these guidelines.
2. The methodologies and philosophies used in the test
programme are presented and are largely supplementary
to the guidelines in the draft RP. The presented dynamic
test philosophy will result in the qualification of both
pipe design and fatigue analysis procedures.
The prototype tests presented in this paper will qualify
the NKT pipe for deep water extreme environment dynamic
riser applications. Results from the dynamic fatigue tests
will be compared with results from the fatigue analysis
described in this paper, and will be presented in a future
paper.

Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions to
this paper of Henk Kastelein (Consultant). The authors also
thank their respective companies for permission to publish
this paper, namely NKT Cables and MCS International.

References
1. API Spec 175: "Specification for Unbonded Flexible Pipe",
First Edition, December 1996.
2. API RP 17B: "Recommended Practice for Flexible Pipe",
Draft Second Edition, Prepared in an MCS Led JIP, MCS
Doc. No. 2-1 -4-029lRP01, Rev. 05, May, 1997.
3. Oliveira, J.G., Goto, Y. and Okamoto, T., 'Theoretical
and
Methodological Approaches to Flexible Pipe Design and
Application", Offshore Technology Conference, Paper No.
502 1, Houston, May 1985.
4. Goto, Y., Okamoto, T., Araki, M. and Fuku, T.: "Analytical
Study of the Mechanical Strength of Flexible Pipe", Journal of
w s h o r e Mechanics and Arctic Engineering, Vol. 109, pp.
249-253, August 1987.
5. Fuku, T., Ishii, K., Tada, H., and Matsui, Y.: "Fatigue
Properties and Analysis of Flexible Rise?', Offshore
Technology Conference (May 1992), OTC 6876.
6. Out, J.M.M.: "On the Prediction of Endurance Strength of
Flexible Pipe", Offshore Technology Conference (May 1989),
OTC 6165.
7. Flexwm3D hogram Manuals: "3D Finite Element Time
Domain Analysis Software Package", MCS International,
Version 4.1, September 1997.

N.-J. R. NIELSEN, F.W. GREALISH, T. O'SULLIVAN

PA11 - 8 mm Thickness

PA11 - 9 mm Thickness

Pressure Armour

Carbon Steel - 10 mm C-Profile

Carbon Steel - 12 mm C-Profile

1st Tensile Armour

Carbon Steel - 3 x 7.5 mm

Carbon Steel - 5 x 12.5 mm

2nd Tensile Armour

Carbon Steel - 3 x 7.5 mm

Carbon Steel - 5 x 12.5 mm

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QUALIFICATION OF A FLEXIBLE RISER FOR DEEPWATER DYNAMIC APPLICATIONS

Notes:
1) Predictions are based upon actual material properties.
2) Test ongoing at time of writing.

N.-J. R. NIELSEN. F.W. GREALISH. T. O'SULLIVAN

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Fbater Data
Conditions

Flerrble Prpe
Desrgn Tool
Prelm~naryP ~ p e
Deslgn

Statrc Analysis

Statr Configuration
Design

Bend S t ~ f i n e r
Deslgn Tool
--

Prehmary
S t f i n e r Des~gn
Final Pipe
Design
I
I

Fatigue
Analysis Data

Prototype
Confibwration
Design

.-

Prototype
Test Functnnal
Requuements

Selectnn Data

Desrgn Tool

Prototype Service
Life Prediction

Bend St~ffener
for Prototype

Definition Tool
Test Programme
Fig. 1 Flowhart for Definition of Test Progtamme for Dynamic Prototype Test (21.

i
i

N.-J. R. NIELSEN, F.W. GREALISH, T. O'SULLIVAN

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Fig. 2 Built-up of 10-inch Flexible Pipe for Qualification Testing

Turret

Mudline

Flg. 3

FPSO
I

Dist.butd B~~~~
Section

\\

S c h e d c of Lazy Wme Riser Configuration.

Rr
Ba

10

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N.-J. R. NIELSEN, F.W. GREALISH, T. O'SULLIVAN

Fig. 4 Schematic of Rotary Bending Test Rig

10-inch
Qualification

L
Fig. 5 - PMI's In-Plane Dynamic Fatigue Test Rig