Creep Analysis for an Unbonded Flexible Pipe Barrier

The fluid barrier in an unbonded flexible pipe seals the pressure from the internal fluid. Since the barrier is usually made of polymer materials, it is unable to hold the pressure by itself. A metal reinforced hoop layer is usually needed outside the barrier layer in order to resist the pressure. The hoop layer is usually a steel bar with a cross-section of an irregular shape. It is helically wrapped at the outside of the barrier layer. When the pipe is pressurized, the barrier will be supported by the hoop reinforcement layer from outside. However, at the gap between the steel wraps where the barrier layer bridges, material of the barrier will be forced to extrude into the gap. The amount of the extrusion is a function of many parameters such as temperature, material property, and internal pressure and so on. In addition, it is time dependent. The creep effect needs be considered. It is critical to have a proper barrier design for a flexible pipe structure. This article presents a practical finite element method for evaluation of the barrier/gap design. The creep behavior of the polymers is multi-parameter related. Therefore, a series of material tests has been conducted under various stresses and temperatures for nylon, polyethylene and Polyvinylidene Fluoride. In this work a method is given to determine the creep behavior parameters through parameter matching based on the tests. The creep deformation of barrier was analyzed with a finite element model using these parameters.

A New Reliability Evaluation Algorithm Using Response Surface Methodology Combined With Space Mapping Technique

A new method is proposed to tackle the huge computation cost involved in Successive Response Surface Methodology applied to the reliability analysis, in which Space Mapping technique is combined with Response Surface Methodology. While the new approach is performed, the limit state function is only fitted at the first iteration; at other iterations Space Mapping technique is employed to map the original limit state function into the new ones. Experimental design, corresponding model evaluations and response surface fitting of the limit state function are not done repetitively as what we do while SRSM is used, which leads to the great cutting down of computational efforts.

Low Cycle Fatigue Analysis of Marine Structures

There are situations where a marine structure is subjected to stress cycles of such large magnitude that small, but significant, parts of the structural component in question experiences cyclic plasticity. Welded joints are particularly vulnerable because of high local stress concentrations. Fatigue caused by oscillating strain in the plastic range is called “low cycle fatigue”. Cycles to failure are typically below 104. Traditional welded joint S-N curves do not describe the fatigue strength in the low cycle region (< 104 number of cycles). Typical Class Society Rules do not directly address the low cycle fatigue problem. It is therefore the objective of this paper to present a credible fatigue damage prediction method of welded joints in the low cycle fatigue regime.

Sorption Kinetics of High Pressure Gases in Polymeric Tubing Materials

A gravimetric method was applied to determine the sorption kinetics of gases into polymers. Diffusivity as well as sorption capacity are determined directly. Data of gas permeability that are required for calculating leakage rates in polymeric flexile gas and oil ducts may be retrieved by multiplying the obtained diffusion coefficients and the gas solubility. In general carbon dioxide enters polymers to the highest extent. In industrial practice, the high solubility of CO2 e.g. may lead to explosive decompression of sealings once the operating pressure is reduced to atmospheric conditions. Diffusion coefficients are presented in the range of 75 to 130°C at 2 to 30 MPa.

Fatigue Under Combined High and Low Frequency Loads

Based on Gaussian load processes, a new formula suitable for evaluating the combined fatigue damage due to high and low frequency loads is derived. Then, by using of the Winterstein’s transformation, the developed formula is extended for the combination of non-Gaussian loads. The numerical simulation shows that the predicted damage by the derived formula is very simple to use and close to the rain-flow prediction.

Non-Linear Fatigue Analysis for Jacket Offshore Structures

This paper presents different approaches for accounting for nonlinear effects in fatigue analysis. One approach is an application of the quadratic approximation method described in [3, 4] to the stochastic fatigue estimation of jacket type offshore structures. An alternative method proposed is based on a spectral approximation, and this approximation turns out to be quite accurate and computationally simple. The stress cycles causing structural fatigue are considered to be directly related to the horizontal excursions of the fixed offshore structure in random seas. Besides inertia forces, it is important to study the effect of the nonlinear Morison type drag forces. Since no direct method for dynamic analysis with Morison type forces is available, it is a goal to find an accurate approximation, allowing efficient dynamic analysis. This has implications for long term fatigue analysis, which is an important issue for design of offshore structures.

Development of Fatigue Design Data for the Ormen Lange Offshore Project: An Overview

The Ormen Lange offshore pipelines from shore to the field go through very difficult terrain creating freespans in the range 40–80m for the 30” lines. For the 6” lines long freespans will be present prior to burial and vortex induced vibrations (VIV) will give a contribution during laying due to strong currents. Using existing codes for fatigue calculation was giving too conservative results compared to the welding technology used and experience from SCR work showed that better S-N data should be expected. A dedicated program was started as part of the Ormen Lange (OL) technology verification program overseen by Norwegian Authorities. An overview of the results is presented here. A full evaluation of the data is not yet complete. Papers will be published later presenting the full technical details and dataprocessing. Fatigue test results from the OL pipeline fatigue verification are presented focusing on the following topics: • Defect sizes in pipeline production welds; • Contractor-A: 5G welding position; • Contractor-B: 2G welding position; • 6” pipe full scale testing; • 30” pipe full scale testing; • Residual stresses; • Crack growth tests and sector specimen fatigue tests in production environments. The following are a summary of the main test variables in the program: • Mapping of actual welding defects compared to AUT results. • Welds with varying misalignment (high/low) and lack of penetration (LOP) from installation contractors tested in air. • Welds with natural welding defects in internal environment (Condensed water and formation water). • Welds with notches made by electrical discharge machining (EDM) (2×65mm and 2×15mm) in internal environment (condensed water and formation water). • Crack growth tests using large compact tension (CT) specimens in air, seawater and internal product environments (condensed water and formation water). • Full scale tests including worst case high/low, LOPs, and tests with normal welds including repair welds. The following main conclusions can be drawn from the work: • Small scale testing with representative worst case defects predicts well large scale testing results with the same features when the small scale specimen stresses are corrected for bending moments etc. arising from the cutout of the pipe. • Full scale testing of 30”×35.5mm wall thickness 2G pipes welded continuously (without start/stop) with worst case defects and high/low exceeds the D curve. • Full-scale tests of 30”×35.5mm wall thickness 5G non continuous welds with worst case defects and high/low exceeds the E curve. • Pipe welds showed low or even compressive residual stresses in the root. For continuously welded pipes the stress levels were low but more varying, also on the cap side. This partly explains the good results. • It is verified that the fatigue loads during operation are below the threshold of crack growth, and thus fatigue will not be a probable failure mechanism. This is under the condition that the measurements of vortex induced vibrations (VIV) during operation confirm the engineering calculations.

Risk Based Inspection for Prioritizing Repair and Inspections of Large Numbers of Platforms in Gulf of Suez

GUPCO has more than hundred platforms located in Gulf of Suez that require topsides and underwater inspections on a regular basis as a part of integrity management system. Because of the high cost of underwater inspections and repair, GUPCO has developed a risk-based process to more effectively implement inspection resources. The process is based upon the critical key characteristics of each platform (year designed, number of legs, framing configuration, manning level, etc.) as well as results from previous inspections (date of last inspection, amount of inspection, flooded members, cut member, excessive marine growth, anode status, etc.). Using this information, the overall “risk” of the platform is determined using a rule-based scoring estimation of the likelihood and consequence of failure. In parallel, the severe damage platform structure is assessment by performing pushover analysis. The platforms are then ranked from highest to lowest risk, with the highest risk platforms receiving priority for repair and inspections. By calculating the likelihood of failure which is the main part of the assessment it is found that the age is the main factor affecting the structure condition. So from this paper one can calculate approximate value for failure likelihood occurring to the structure by knowing its age.

Modelling Strength Degradation Phenomena and Inspections Used for Reliability Assessment Based on Maintenance Planning

The work reviews different probabilistic models of strength degradation of steel ship hull structures considering time dependent corrosion phenomena. Different models of time variation of the degradation phenomena are analyzed as well as the probability of detection and different inspection methods associated with each phenomenon is discussed.

Extreme Waves and Stochastic Wave Groups

We introduce the concept of stochastic wave groups to explain the occurrence of extreme waves in nonlinear random seas, according to the dynamics imposed by the Zakharov equation (Zakharov, 1999). As a corollary, a new probability of exceedance of the crest-to-trough height which takes in to account the quasi-resonance interaction is derived. Furthermore, a generalization of the Tayfun distribution (Tayfun, 1986) for the wave crest height is also proposed. The new analytical distributions explain qualitatively well the experimental results of Onorato et al. (2004, 2005) and the numerical results of Juglard et al. (2005).