Proceedings of The Fifteenth (2005) International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference

Seoul, Korea, June 1924, 2005

Copyright 2005 by The International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers
ISBN 1-880653-64-8 (Set); ISSN 1098-6189 (Set)

Pipeline Expansion on Uneven Seabed

Tore Soreide, Stig Olav Kvarme, Gunnar Paulsen
REINERTSEN Engineering AS
Trondheim, Norway

current come out to be governing for the spans. Regarding expansion

control, the uneven seabed requires axial feed-in to be taken out at
predefined locations.

ABSTRACT
The present paper, as originating from the Ormen Lange project, deals
with pipeline expansion philosophy on uneven sea bottom. Major
design issues are discussed in the form of capacity and serviceability
criteria as governing for intervention works.
A rational insight into the expansion mechanisms involved on uneven
seabed is needed. Analytical as well as numerical simulations are
applied to illustrate the different modes of deformation and their
governing design parameters, including free span feed-in, shoulder liftoff, as well as vertical and horizontal buckling. The effects on
allowable feed-in from soil resistance, pipeline weight and initial
geometry are discussed in view of the analyses.
As related to pipelines on even seabed the imperfections introduced by
topography may play a major role in the selection of expansion
locations. A robust design in the form of predictable expansion
behaviour may be obtained by combining bottom unevenness, planned
routing and seabed intervention. Straight pipeline sections with typical
snap-through buckling behaviour, normally imply high unbalanced
forces in the system with extra requirement on axial friction between
the expansion buckles. The natural imperfections on uneven seabed
give the opportunity to obtain a smoother design with less sensitivity to
soil parameters.

Figure 1. Overview Ormen Lange Deep Water Area

90.000

95.000

100.000

105.000

110.000

115.000

120.000

-200
STOREGGA
SLIDE EDGE
-300
POSSIBLE S-LAY/J-LAY
INTERFACE POINT
-400

-500

The sensitivity of the allowable axial feed-in and locking distance to

bending moment capacity and corrosion is highlighted, together with
the need for analyzing cyclic behaviour from repeated shut-downs and
start-ups.

-600

-700

-800

KEY WORDS: Pipeline, expansion, feed-in, lift off, buckling, uneven

seabed, cyclic loading.

ORMEN
LANGE

-900

Figure 2. Vertical Seabed Profile, Ormen Lange Deep Water Area

INTRODUCTION

The seabed is an old submarine slide area. The water depth is

approximately 250 m at the escarpment edge and about 850 m at the
development area, see Fig 2. The bottom sediments consist partly of hard
clay with infills of very soft sediments. This makes the pipeline routing
challenging in order to minimize the number and length of free spans.

The Ormen Lange field is located outside Norway and is developed by

Hydro, see Figure 1. The field is facing a very irregular seabed,
resulting in a large number of free spans, some of which are beyond
currently accepted lengths. Vortex Induced Vibrations (VIV) due to

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