Offshore wallthickness design Lesson Notes

In this session we will be looking at Wall Thickness Design for Offshore pipelines. Specifically we will be looking at; Failure modes relating to Wall Thickness design Design code DNV 0S F101s requirements for wall thickness The data required for Wall thickness design Determining the minimum Wall thickness Other factors that may effect Wall thickness design Wall thickness design falls within the project execution phase of a project, and more specifically within the Design Process, from Preliminary to detailed design. Propagation buckling also due to external collapse And Ovalisation buckling under combined bending, axial and external pressure loads. The pipe must also be designed for each pressure condition it will experience. These are; Empty when being laid Full of water pre or post testing During hydro testing which covers surge/transient pressure. During operation Bursting, our primary failure mode, is caused by excessive internal pressure. Therefore when designing wall thickness to withstand bursting we must consider the tensile hoop stress within the pipe wall.

The primary concern when determining the wall thickness of a pipeline is the containment of pressure. Therefore the design philosophy of the pipeline codes that can be applied to wall thickness is to start by limiting the hoop stress induced by pressure to a fraction of the yield stress of the material. The second aim of these codes is usually to limit Von Mises equivalent stress under the action of combined loading; such as internal pressure plus pipeline bending due to spanning.

Bursting To find the allowable hoop stress you must apply design factors to the specified minimum yield strength. The allowable hoop stress is therefore set at a safe level taking into account location, operating conditions, material, welding quality and other relevant limitations.

For very deep water conditions however failure modes due to external pressure may be the over riding concern. So when designing for wall thickness we must consider the following failure modes: Bursting due to internal pressure Hydrostatic or cross-sectional collapse due to external pressure

Hydrostatic collapse on the other hand is caused by excessive external pressure. High external pressure is not only an issue at very large depths but also when the pipeline is being laid when it is often empty. An empty pipe being laid can also experience high bending stresses associated with the installation process and this can lead to cross-sectional collapse.

Whilst the information contained in this document is deemed accurate at time of publishing. JPKenny Ltd cannot be held responsible for errors or omissions

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When looking at combined loading there are two conditions that must be considered; Load Controlled and Displacement controlled. Load controlled is where the bending moment is the over riding factor, and Displacement controlled is where the Compressive longitudinal strain is the over riding factor. Cross sectional collapse To avoid hydrostatic collapse in deep water a pipeline may sometimes be laid filled. If cross-sectional collapse does occur then it is possible that the external pressure will provide sufficient force to propagate the buckle along the length of the pipeline. The pressure required to propagate a buckle is much lower than the pressure that leads to collapse however it still needs to be calculated so you can determine if buckle arrestors are going to be needed. So now that we appreciate the importance of wall thickness design for our pipeline in relation to the four failure modes; Bursting due to external pressure Cross-sectional collapse due to external pressure Propagation buckling due to external pressure and ovalisation buckling due to combined loads of bending, axial and external pressure. We must look at how we might carry out the design. Firstly there are a number of design codes that can be applied, for instance; BS8010 Code of Practice for pipelines ANSI/ASME B31.4 (1992) Liquid transportation Systems for Hydrocarbon, Liquid Petroleum Gas, Anhydrous Ammonia and Alcohol AS2885 (1997) Pipelines Gas and Liquid Petroleum ISO 13623 (2000) DNV 0S F101 (2000) Submarine Pipeline Systems Each applies the same basic equation but treats them differently so care must be taken to ensure you adhere to the selected code. For the remainder of this session we refer to DNV 0S F101 with the aim of providing an understanding of how this code deals with wall thickness design. DNV 0S F101 sets out its general requirements for Wall Thickness in section B400. This requirement is dependent on the nominal diameter of the pipe and is for given conditions where the safety class is high and the location class is 2. It states that for a pipe with a nominal diameter of 8 and above a nominal wall thickness of 12mm will be used unless equivalent protection against accidental loads, dropped objects and other external loads is provided. For pipes with a nominal diameter of less than 8 an evaluation of these loads must be included in determining the wall thickness required.

Propagation Buckling Local buckling can also occur due to excessive bending without significant external pressure being present. For instance, when a pipe is being laid from a laying vessel. Local buckling occurs on one side of the pipe wall and is caused by the bending moment which is dependent on the axial force present in the pipeline. Ovalisation buckling is triggered by excessive bending stress. External pressure then acts in tandem to increase Ovalisation until the pipe collapses into a dog bone shape thus reducing the strength of the pipe.

Ovalisation

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This requirement is in essence to protect the pipeline from damage due to impact as this has been shown to be the most likely cause of failure. Beyond this it must be ensured that the wall thickness is sufficient to protect for the failure modes we have discussed; Pressure containment, Collapse and buckling. To assist with your calculations relating to wall thickness design to DNV 0S F101 there are a number of tools that you can use. DNV have developed a spreadsheet which can be used as an initial quick reference and as a final check.

The DNV spreadsheet is divided into 5 sections: The first three representing the data you need to complete the wall thickness calculations: - Geometry - Material - Loads The last two being the calculations themselves: - Wall Thickness Design - Load Interaction Looking firstly at Geometry what data do we need to know? Firstly we need to know the Nominal outer steel diameter OD and the nominal wall thickness, tnom. We also need to know the fabrication tolerance, tfab and the corrosion allowance tcorr. To calculate the Fabrication tolerance we can turn to our Gold standard worksheet.

JPKenny have developed a gold standard worksheet titled DNV (2000) 0S F101 Wall Thickness evaluation which has been set up for carbon steel only.

When checking for failure modes other than bursting, we also need to know the out-of roundness, fo. And for combined loading which is displacement controlled you will need to know the girth weld factor. Once we have gathered the geometric data we need to look at the material properties. Firstly we need to understand the relationship that material has with Wall thickness design. DNV 0S F101 has outlined the relationship between material and design within this diagram. Within this we are introduced to the supplementary requirements which come into force depending on the conditions and specification of a given pipeline.

Using the DNV spreadsheet as our guide we will now look at how we might approach wall thickness design.

Whilst the information contained in this document is deemed accurate at time of publishing. JPKenny Ltd cannot be held responsible for errors or omissions

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Of these supplementary requirements we will look at supplementary requirement U which relates to the first material property we require; the specified minimum yield strength SMYS. If the SMYS is greater than or equal to 450 MPa then this requirement may usually be applied on the basis of a cost benefit analysis, as the increased confidence in yield strength implies a requirement of 4% less steel. In addition to the SMYS we also need to know the Specified minimum tensile strength SMTS. Now we must calculate the temperature de-rating values: fy, the temperature relating to yield stress and fu, the temperature relating to tensile strength. Here we can refer to our Gold standard worksheet which details the calculation.

UO & TRS UOE Now that we have our Geometric and Material Data we can look at what data we need in relation to loads. Here we look at a given point along the pipeline, for instance a specific depth or location. We also need to take into account the loading phase of the pipeline. Essentially we need to know the pressure that the pipe will be subjected to at that point for both operation and testing and at what depth relative to the mean sea level that that pressure is being applied. We also need to know the density of the liquid both inside the pipe and externally for both testing and operation phases. We finally need to know the depth at which the pipeline lies and the maximum and minimum elevation relative to the mean sea level. The maximum and minimum elevation is usually low and high tide. Maximum elevation plus depth equals the maximum depth which we need to know for collapse and propagating buckling checks. Now we have collected our geometric, Material and Load data we can move onto the Wall thickness calculations. For our wall thickness calculation we need to know the safety class for point or section you are calculating for. The safety class will dictate the minimum local system test pressure, psyst-test. We also need the minimum Mill Test pressure. We start by calculating the wall thickness for our first failure mode; Bursting, or rather for pressure containment. Our Gold Standard worksheet provides a calculation tool for this.

For all failure modes except bursting we also need the constants; Young's Modulus, E, and Poisson's ratio, .

For combined loading we also need the Anisotropy factor aA , and for combined loading displacement controlled we also need to know the maximum yield to tensile ratio. The final material property we need to know is the fabrication factor afab. This factor takes into account the fabrication process, which introduces what is called the Bauschinger effect. This is where the tensile yield strength increases and the compressive yield strength decreases due to the plastic deformation of the metal. There are three fabrication methods for our line pipe: Seamless
Offshore wall thickness design Lesson Notes (rev03 10)

We can then use our worksheet to proceed to the calculations to design for cross-sectional collapse;

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and for propagation buckling;

We have now looked at the failure modes that we must consider when designing for wall thickness: Bursting due to internal pressure Cross-sectional collapse due to external pressure Propagation buckling due to external pressure And ovalisation buckling due to combined loads of bending, axial and external pressure. And the Data we need to gather to carry out the required calculations: Geometric Material And Loads We have then been able to calculate the minimum wall thicknesses for each failure mode taking into account the Safety Class, and then selected the governing minimum wall thickness from our results. There are however other factors beyond the requirements of a given design code that may effect the minimum wall thickness. For instance stability and layability; which may warrant the selection of a thicker pipe wall in order to increase the pipeline unit weight and minimise concrete thickness, which in turn generally makes the pipe more layable. You may also need to include a larger corrosion allowance, as in the case of Risers fabricated from C-Mn steel with a safety class Normal or High in the Splash zone.

In respect to combined loading we must as always consider the worst case scenario. The pipeline system must be designed for the worst load combination given in table 5-6 in DNV-OS F101.There are several Gold standard worksheets that may be used to assist in your combined loading calculations such as 1004 DNV 2000 0S F101 Load controlled unity check, however this is beyond the scope of this session. Now we have completed all our calculations we are left with a table of required minimum wall thicknesses for each of our failure modes. As stated earlier it is the greatest minimum wall thickness required that will govern the design. In this example that is the wall thickness required for our primary failure mode bursting, this is often but not always, the case. Looking at the profile plot shown we can see how the required wall thickness for each failure mode in a given case dictates the selected wall thickness and the need for buckle arrestors.

Whilst the information contained in this document is deemed accurate at time of publishing. JPKenny Ltd cannot be held responsible for errors or omissions

Offshore wall thickness design Lesson Notes (rev03 10)

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