Pipeline Expansion/Lateral and Upheaval Buckling

Agenda
1. Pipeline Expansion
2. Pipeline Lateral Buckling
3. Pipeline Upheaval Buckling
Pipeline Expansion/Lateral
Buckling/Walking Design 4. Pipeline Walking
5. Summary
1. Pipeline Expansion - Introduction

• What is pipeline expansion?

- Due to the operating temperature and operating pressure (normally higher than
installation temperature and installation pressure), the pipeline will expand at its two
ends.
1. Pipeline Expansion - Introduction

• Causes of Expansion

- The three main reasons contributing to the end force and expansion leading to the
lateral/upheaval buckling and walking are:

- Temperature
- Pressure
- Poisson contraction – associated with pressure effects
1. Pipeline Expansion - Introduction

Partially restrained area Partially restrained area

Hot end Cold end

f f
Vitual anchor at the
center (short pipeline)

Partially restrained area Partially restrained area

Hot end Cold end

f f
Fully restrained area
(long pipeline)
Vitual anchor point x
1. Pipeline Expansion – Analysis

Thermal Strain: Due to temperature difference between installation

and operation

Longitudinal Stress due to Temperature:

– Stress is developed when strain is prevented
– Stress dependent upon axial pipeline restraint

– When Unrestrained :
• no stress due to temperature
• εT =  ΔT

– When restrained :
• no strain
• T = - E ΔT
1. Pipeline Expansion – Analysis

Longitudinal Stress due to Pressure

– Two pressure effects
• Poissons effect
• End cap

Poissons effect
– Circumferential expansion due to internal pressure gives axial
compression
– Poissons ratio = lateral strain/longitudinal strain = 0.3 for CS

– Stress is developed when strain is prevented

– Stress dependent upon axial pipeline restraint
1. Pipeline Expansion – Analysis
Poisson Effect of Pressure in Unrestrained Pipe

Pressure
ε

Induced Longitudinal
strain
1. Pipeline Expansion – Analysis

Longitudinal Stress due to Poissons Effect

– When Unrestrained
• No longitudinal stress
• εn = - n. hoop / E

– When restrained
• No strain, εv = 0
n = + n. hoop
1. Pipeline Expansion – Analysis
Longitudinal Stress - Endcap

Endcap effect
– pressure differential acting over internal cross-section area of pipe
end (hence “end cap”)
– Stress & strain due to end cap force


. (D i .Pi - D o .Po )
2 2

 ec  4
AST
1. Pipeline Expansion – Analysis
Longitudinal Stress – Unrestrained

- εtemp & εn occur without stress when unrestained

 ur  E . (εnet - εtemp – εn )
 ur  E . (εec – εfriction)
But εfriction = 0 at free end
 ur  εec . E


. (Di .Pi - D o .Po )
2 2

 ur  4
AST
Note:
εtotal = εec + εn + εtemp
εnet = εtotal – εfriction
1. Pipeline Expansion – Analysis
Longitudinal Stress – Restrained Pipeline

- Restrained
- As for unrestained,   E . (εnet - εtemp – εn )
- εnet = 0
 r   E . (εtemp + εn )
- r = - E ΔT + n. hoop

- Partially Restrained
- As for unrestained, part  E . (εec – εfriction)
 part  E .εec – m.Ws.L / Asteel

Partially restrained area Partially restrained area

Cold end

f f
Fully restrained area
(long pipeline)
Vitual anchor point x
1. Pipeline Expansion - Analysis

The End Expansion:

Lac
δ   ε net dL
0

Where Lac is visual anchor length

Partially restrained area Partially restrained area

Hot end Cold end

f f
Fully restrained area
(long pipeline)
Vitual anchor point x
1. Pipeline Expansion - Analysis
At L = x

σL(Partially restrained) = σL(fully restrained)

Therefore, the only unknown x can be obtained. Then use equation (4) to
calculate the pipe end expanison.

Partially restrained area Partially restrained area

Hot end Cold end

f f
Fully restrained area
(long pipeline)
Vitual anchor point x
1. Pipeline Expansion – Effective Axial Force

• Effective Axial Force: A very very important concept in pipeline design

- The definition: Neff = Ntrue – piAi + peAe

- What is the effective axial force?

 1. Pipeline Expansion – Effective Axial Force
- Figure of typical effective axial force for long pipeline
(operational temperature is not constant along the pipe)

Hot end Cold end

f f
Fully restrained area
(long pipeline)
0
Force (Ne)
Effective Axial

Maximum effective axial

force

Vitual anchor point

 1. Pipeline Expansion – Effective Axial Force
- Figure of typical temperature distribution along the pipeline
Temperature

outlet
inlet

Installation Temperature
Force (Ne)
Effective Axial
 1. Pipeline Expansion – Effective Axial Force
- Figure of typical effective axial force for short pipeline
Partially restrained area Partially restrained area
Hot end Cold end

f f
Anchor at the center
(short pipeline)
0
Force (Ne)
Effective Axial

Maximum effective axial

force

Vitual anchor point

1. Pipeline Expansion – Analysis Results

- End expansion displacment, as inputs for spool design analysis

- Effective Axial Force distribution, as inputs for free-span analysis, lateral buckling
analysis etc.
2. Pipeline Lateral Buckling- Introduction

• What is pipeline lateral buckling?

2. Pipeline Lateral Buckling- Analytical Solution

• Elastic buckling analytical theories developed for railways

2. Pipeline Lateral Buckling- Analytical Solution

Pipeline lateral buckling is NOT a failure mode, but it may cause other failure
modes.

 Local buckling

 Fracture

 Fatigue
2. Pipeline Lateral Buckling- Analytical Solution

• Limitations of Hobb’s method

Hobb’s method is based on a few assumptions

 Linear material property

 Linear pipe-soil interaction

 Flat seabed etc.

It provides a simple method to check the potential of pipeline bucking, but it

cannot correctly access the stress-strain (or bending moment-axial force) inside
the pipeline after pipeline buckling happens.
2. Pipeline Lateral Buckling- Mitigating Measures (Controlled Buckling)

 Sharing of expansion into adjacent buckles: This can be achieved by the

use of rock dumping at intermittent sections, with the aim to increase the
restraint to axial movement in order to reduce the feed-in into isolated buckles
that may be triggered by imperfection or trawl gear.
2. Pipeline Lateral Buckling- Mitigating Measures (Controlled Buckling)

 Mid-line Expansion spool: to absorb the pipe expansion under operational

temperature and pressure
2. Pipeline Lateral Buckling- Mitigating Measures (Controlled Buckling)

 Vertical Triggers/Sleepers: Pipe sleepers pre-laid across the seabed is used

to raise the pipeline off the seabed. This will create a vertical imperfection
(Out-of-straightness - OOS), which will initiate a buckle at this section.
2. Pipeline Lateral Buckling- Mitigating Measures (Controlled Buckling)

 Buckle Initiation using distributed Buoyancy: The distributed buoyancy is

added to reduce the weight at the intermittent sections. As the critical buckling
force is a function of pipeline weight, the added distributed buoyancy leads to
buckle initiations as the weight reduces.
2. Pipeline Lateral Buckling- Mitigating Measures (Controlled Buckling)

 Snake –Lay Configuration: The concept of snake lay is to deliberately install

horizontal lay imperfections to trigger a sufficient number of buckles at pre-
determined locations along the pipeline so that the thermal expansion is
distributed among a number of buckles rather than being concentrated at a
few buckle sites .
2. Pipeline Lateral Buckling- Finite Element Solution

• General

 Commercial finite element software (Abaqus\Ansys) are used to access the

pipeline lateral buckling

 To appropriately model the real situation: temperature decay, non-linear material

property, non-linear pipe-soil interaction, residual laying tension, pipe supports, start-
up & shut down effects etc.

 The bending moment, axial force, stress and strain are extracted from the FE
model for checking the local buckling, fracture and fatigue.
2. Pipeline Lateral Buckling- Finite Element Solution

• Visual anchor spacing (VAS model): What is VAS model and why needs VAS model

 VAS model is to study the lateral buckling for a short pipe segment (typically 2-6km)

 Two necessary conditions to trigger the lateral buckling, force and imperfection.
However, it is not possible to get the pipeline lateral imperfection before installation.
This uncertainty must be studied.

 Other uncertainties: pipe-soil interaction etc.

 Model the entire line is time consuming

2. Pipeline Lateral Buckling- Finite Element Solution

• The purpose of VAS model: to decide the spacing (typically 2-6km) to put lateral or
vertical trigger
Force (Ne)
Effective Axial

vitual anchor spacing

2. Pipeline Lateral Buckling- Finite Element Solution

• Confirmatory global model is analysed with finite element models

2. Pipeline Lateral Buckling- Finite Element Solution

• Design criteria for lateral buckling check

 Local buckling check (displacement control criteria, DNV-OS-F101), the

main criteria to get the allowable virtual anchor spacing.

 Fracture check (Engineering critical assessment, BS 7910)

 Fatigue check (SAFEBUCK)

2. Pipeline Lateral Buckling- Finite Element Solution

• A full model analysis is performed to check again that all the criteria are
fulfilled.
3. Pipeline Upheaval Buckling- Introduction

• What is pipeline upheaval buckling?

3. Pipeline Upheaval Buckling- Introduction
-- Upheaval buckling is caused by the interaction between that longitudinal
compressive force and the local curvature of the pipeline axis
3. Pipeline Upheaval Buckling- Introduction
3. Pipeline Upheaval Buckling- Analytical Solutions

 Analytical solutions (two references)

 OTC 6335 Design of Submarine Pipelines Against Upheaval Buckling, by

Andrew C. Palmer and C.P. Ellinas, May 1990

 Upheaval Buckling of Pipelines, Shell Design and Engineering Practice

(DEPs) 31.40.10.16-Gen. December 1998
3. Pipeline Upheaval Buckling- Analytical Solutions
3. Pipeline Upheaval Buckling- Analytical Solutions