Further Development and Benchmarking of a Novel Pipe-Soil Interaction Model for Subsea Pipeline Design

Author(s):  
Terry Griffiths ◽  
Wenwen Shen

For well over a decade it has been widely recognised that our existing models and tools for subsea pipeline stability design fail to account for the fact that seabed soils tend to become mobile well before the onset of pipeline instability. Despite ample evidence obtained from both laboratory and field observations that sediment mobility has a key role to play in understanding pipeline/soil interaction, no models have been presented previously which account for the tripartite interaction between the fluid and the pipe, the fluid and the soil, and the pipe and the soil. This paper presents further development of a novel non-cohesive pipe-soil interaction algorithm which has been developed to enable modelling of pipe-soil-fluid interaction and offer a more realistic representation of the evolution of soil profiles around the pipeline compared to existing hysteresis friction spring approaches. The paper describes the methods applied to discretisation of the soil profile and interpolation between timesteps to conserve soil volume. The approach used to deform the seabed profile to account for pipe movement and predict pipeline / soil reaction forces enable the model to be benchmarked against the Verley model [12]. The model has been specifically developed to minimise computational cost compared to computationally intensive CEL continuum soil FEA approaches [6,14], but still enable the profile of the soil around the pipe to be established. This model has application to modelling of sediment transport and scour [4]. It may also offer advantages in the modelling of globally buckling pipelines where differing levels of embedment and support at buckle shoulders versus the apex of the buckle are not well handled by existing approaches. The model may also assist where existing, generally applied approaches are also not well developed to capture coupling of behaviour in axial and lateral resistances.

Author(s):  
Hiroki Yamashita ◽  
Guanchu Chen ◽  
Yeefeng Ruan ◽  
Paramsothy Jayakumar ◽  
Hiroyuki Sugiyama

A high-fidelity computational terrain dynamics model plays a crucial role in accurate vehicle mobility performance prediction under various maneuvering scenarios on deformable terrain. Although many computational models have been proposed using either finite element (FE) or discrete element (DE) approaches, phenomenological constitutive assumptions in FE soil models make the modeling of complex granular terrain behavior very difficult and DE soil models are computationally intensive, especially when considering a wide range of terrain. To address the limitations of existing deformable terrain models, this paper presents a hierarchical FE–DE multiscale tire–soil interaction simulation capability that can be integrated in the monolithic multibody dynamics solver for high-fidelity off-road mobility simulation using high-performance computing (HPC) techniques. It is demonstrated that computational cost is substantially lowered by the multiscale soil model as compared to the corresponding pure DE model while maintaining the solution accuracy. The multiscale tire–soil interaction model is validated against the soil bin mobility test data under various wheel load and tire inflation pressure conditions, thereby demonstrating the potential of the proposed method for resolving challenging vehicle-terrain interaction problems.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Julian Wucherpfennig ◽  
Aya Kachi ◽  
Nils-Christian Bormann ◽  
Philipp Hunziker

Abstract Binary outcome models are frequently used in the social sciences and economics. However, such models are difficult to estimate with interdependent data structures, including spatial, temporal, and spatio-temporal autocorrelation because jointly determined error terms in the reduced-form specification are generally analytically intractable. To deal with this problem, simulation-based approaches have been proposed. However, these approaches (i) are computationally intensive and impractical for sizable datasets commonly used in contemporary research, and (ii) rarely address temporal interdependence. As a way forward, we demonstrate how to reduce the computational burden significantly by (i) introducing analytically-tractable pseudo maximum likelihood estimators for latent binary choice models that exhibit interdependence across space and time and by (ii) proposing an implementation strategy that increases computational efficiency considerably. Monte Carlo experiments show that our estimators recover the parameter values as good as commonly used estimation alternatives and require only a fraction of the computational cost.


Author(s):  
Wenwen Shen ◽  
Terry Griffiths ◽  
Mengmeng Xu ◽  
Jeremy Leggoe

For well over a decade it has been widely recognised that existing models and tools for subsea pipeline stability design fail to account for the fact that seabed soils tend to become mobile well before the onset of pipeline instability. Despite ample evidence obtained from both laboratory and field observations that sediment mobility has a key role to play in understanding pipeline/soil interaction, no models have been presented previously which account for the tripartite interaction between the fluid and the pipe, the fluid and the soil, and the pipe and the soil. There are numerous well developed and widely used theories available to model pipe-fluid and pipe-soil interactions. A challenge lies in the way to develop a satisfactory fluid-soil interaction algorithm that has the potential for broad implementation under both ambient and extreme sea conditions due to the complexity of flow in the vicinity of a seabed pipeline or cable. A widely used relationship by Shields [1] links the bedload and suspended sediment transport to the seabed shear stresses. This paper presents details of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) research which has been undertaken to investigate the variation of seabed shear stresses around subsea pipelines as a parametric function of pipeline spanning/embedment, trench configuration and wave/current properties using the commercial RANS-based software ANSYS Fluent. The modelling work has been undertaken for a wide range of seabed geometries, including cases in 3D to evaluate the effects of finite span length, span depth and flow attack angle on shear stresses. These seabed shear stresses have been analysed and used as the basis for predicting sediment transport within the Pipe-Soil-Fluid (PSF) Interaction Model [2] in determining the suspended sediment concentration and the advection velocity in the vicinity of pipelines. The model has significant potential to be of use to operators who struggle with conventional stabilisation techniques for the pipelines, such as those which cross Australia’s North West Shelf, where shallow water depths, highly variable calcareous soils and extreme metocean conditions driven by frequent tropical cyclones result in the requirement for expensive and logistically challenging secondary stabilisation measures.


Author(s):  
Dale Millward

Effective pipeline design and regular maintenance can assist in prolonging the lifespan of subsea pipelines, however the presence of marine vessels can significantly increase the risk of pipeline damage from anchor hazards. As noted in the Health and Safety Executive – Guideline for Pipeline Operators on Pipeline Anchor Hazards 2009. “Anchor hazards can pose a significant threat to pipeline integrity. The consequences of damage to a pipeline could include loss of life, injury, fire, explosion, loss of buoyancy around a vessel and major pollution”. This paper will describe state of the art pipeline isolation tooling that enables safe modification of pressurised subsea pipelines. Double Block and Bleed (DBB) isolation tools have been utilised to greatly reduce downtime, increase safety and maximise unplanned maintenance, providing cost-effective solutions to the end user. High integrity isolation methods, in compliance with international subsea system intervention and isolation guidelines (IMCA D 044 / IMCA D 006), that enable piggable and unpiggable pipeline systems to be isolated before any breaking of containment, will also be explained. This paper will discuss subsea pipeline damage scenarios and repair options available to ensure a safe isolation of the pipeline and contents in the event of an incident DNV GL type approved isolation technology enables the installation of a fail-safe, DBB isolation in the event of a midline defect. The paper will conclude with case studies highlighting challenging subsea pipeline repair scenarios successfully executed, without depressurising the entire pipeline system, and in some cases without shutting down or interrupting production.


2017 ◽  
Vol 07 (02) ◽  
pp. 311-323
Author(s):  
Son Tung Pham ◽  
Minh Huy Truong ◽  
Ba Tuan Pham

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anuj Dhoj Thapa

Gillespie's algorithm, also known as the Stochastic Simulation Algorithm (SSA), is an exact simulation method for the Chemical Master Equation model of well-stirred biochemical systems. However, this method is computationally intensive when some fast reactions are present in the system. The tau-leap scheme developed by Gillespie can speed up the stochastic simulation of these biochemically reacting systems with negligible loss in accuracy. A number of tau-leaping methods were proposed, including the explicit tau-leaping and the implicit tau-leaping strategies. Nonetheless, these schemes have low order of accuracy. In this thesis, we investigate tau-leap strategies which achieve high accuracy at reduced computational cost. These strategies are tested on several biochemical systems of practical interest.


Author(s):  
James Farrow

ABSTRACT ObjectivesThe SA.NT DataLink Next Generation Linkage Management System (NGLMS) stores linked data in the form of a graph (in the computer science sense) comprised of nodes (records) and edges (record relationships or similarities). This permits efficient pre-clustering techniques based on transitive closure to form groups of records which relate to the same individual (or other selection criteria). ApproachOnly information known (or at least highly likely) to be relevant is extracted from the graph as superclusters. This operation is computationally inexpensive when the underlying information is stored as a graph and may be able to be done on-the-fly for typical clusters. More computationally intensive analysis and/or further clustering may then be performed on this smaller subgraph. Canopy clustering and using blocking used to reduce pairwise comparisons are expressions of the same type of approach. ResultsSubclusters for manual review based on transitive closure are typically computationally inexpensive enough to extract from the NGLMS that they are extracted on-demand during manual clerical review activities. There is no necessity to pre-calculate these clusters. Once extracted further analysis is undertaken on these smaller data groupings for visualisation and presentation for review and quality analysis. More computationally expensive techniques can be used at this point to prepare data for visualisation or provide hints to manual reviewers. 
Extracting high-recall groups of data records for review but providing them to reviews grouped further into high precision groups as the result of a second pass has resulted in a reduction of the time taken for clerical reviewers at SANT DataLink to manual review a group by 30–40%. The reviewers are able to manipulate whole groups of related records at once rather than individual records. ConclusionPre-clustering reduces the computational cost associated with higher order clustering and analysis algorithms. Algorithms which scale by n^2 (or more) are typical in comparison scenarios. By breaking the problem into pieces the computational cost can be reduced. Typically breaking a problem into many pieces reduces the cost in proportion to the number of pieces the problem can be broken into. This cost reduction can make techniques possible which would otherwise be computationally prohibitive.


2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (04) ◽  
pp. 571-587 ◽  
Author(s):  
WILLIAM ROBSON SCHWARTZ ◽  
HELIO PEDRINI

Fractal image compression is one of the most promising techniques for image compression due to advantages such as resolution independence and fast decompression. It exploits the fact that natural scenes present self-similarity to remove redundancy and obtain high compression rates with smaller quality degradation compared to traditional compression methods. The main drawback of fractal compression is its computationally intensive encoding process, due to the need for searching regions with high similarity in the image. Several approaches have been developed to reduce the computational cost to locate similar regions. In this work, we propose a method based on robust feature descriptors to speed up the encoding time. The use of robust features provides more discriminative and representative information for regions of the image. When the regions are better represented, the search for similar parts of the image can be reduced to focus only on the most likely matching candidates, which leads to reduction on the computational time. Our experimental results show that the use of robust feature descriptors reduces the encoding time while keeping high compression rates and reconstruction quality.


Author(s):  
Alvaro Maia da Costa ◽  
Carlos de Oliveira Cardoso ◽  
Claudio dos Santos Amaral ◽  
Alejandro Andueza

Heated pipelines buried in soft clay can develop a very challenging behavior. The thermal expansion of the pipelines normally induces buckles, which will be supported by the passive soil reaction. The buckles of the pipelines in soft clay can generate a non-linear inelastic behavior that is an unstable situation named “snap through”. In such situation the pipeline can jump from a configuration of a few centimeters displacement to another of meters displacement. Once the snap through situation has developed, there is the possibility of a local pipeline buckling, causing the pipeline rupture and as a consequence an oil spill. This paper presents the results obtained during the analysis of the rupture of a buried heated pipeline in the Guanabara Bay of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A very sophisticated procedure including a simulation of the thermal mechanical interactions between the soil and the pipeline structure was developed for back analysis of the thermal inelastic pipeline buckling. Computer modeling was carried out using the finite element method considering of the non-linear material behavior of the soil and pipeline, and nonlinear geometrical behavior of the pipeline. A cyclic thermal-mechanical soil-pipeline structure interaction model was the challenging aspect of the simulation, that explains the trigger mechanism of the snap through behavior of heated pipelines, which was responsible for the rupture of the pipeline in Guanabara Bay.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (09) ◽  
pp. 1850107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan-An Gao ◽  
Qing-Shan Yang ◽  
Yun Dong

A three-dimensional (3D) pedestrian–structure interaction (PSI) system based on the biomechanical bipedal model is presented for general applications. The pedestrian is modeled by a bipedal mobile system with one lump mass and two compliant legs, which comprise damping and spring elements. The continuous gaits of the pedestrian are maintained by a self-driven walking kinetic energy, which is a new driven mechanism for the mobile unit. This self-driven mechanism enables the pedestrian to operate at a varying total energy level, as an important component for further modeling of the crowd-structure dynamic interaction. Numerical studies show that the pedestrian walking on the structure leads to a reduction in the natural frequency, but an increase in the damping ratio of the structure. This model can also reproduce the reaction forces between the feet and structure, similar to those measured in the field. In addition, the proposed model can well describe the 3D pedestrian–structure dynamic interaction. It is recommended for use in further study of more complicated scenarios such as the dynamic interaction between a large scale kinetic crowd and slender footbridge.


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