Nomenclature

Abbreviations

Symbols

Table of Content

Numerical analyses of dynamic response in subsea

pipelines subjected to impact loads
Introduction
As the offshore oil and gas explorations and extraction activities grow rapidly
with the rising demand, the population of offshore pipelines in many areas has
become extremely high making it difficult to allocate separate pipeline corridors.
For this reason, many authorities have allowed multiple industries to work
together in particular areas. As a result, the damage associated with external
impacts, due to fishing gears, ship anchors and dropped objects, can be a critical
component in operating subsea pipelines.
Furthermore, with the higher costs associated with trenching and rock dumping
techniques, alternatively trenchless pipelines are becoming widely popular,
directly creating a higher exposure to external impacts. Pipelines in offshore
areas in Norway are facing the free spanning issues due to uneven bottom
created by iceberg scour marks going to a depth of 10m and a width of about
200m(Verley et al. 1991). In addition, unsupported pipeline spans, which may
arise due to uneven or rocky seabed conditions, scour around the pipeline
resulting from current and wave action on granular or cohesiveless soils, could
induce resonant situation, which lead to possible pipeline damage.

When considering fishing trawl boards, the clump weights can have a mass of
about 10000 kg, and the trawling velocity can be as high as 3 m/s (Det Norske
Veritas 2010a). The resulting trawl gear interacting force with the pipeline could
be as critical as about 30 kN to 50 kN for smaller trawl gears and 100 kN 150
kN for larger trawl gears, with the interaction duration of 1s (Verley et al. 1991).
The interaction between the pipe and trawl gear can be categorized in to three
categories. First component is the initial impact, which has a duration of about
hundredth of a second. The second category is the pull over phase where the
duration could remain up to 10 s. The third component, which may or may not
occur, is the hooking.

The contact force is associated with the transfer of kinetic energy from the trawl
gear to the pipe, coating and surrounding soil. In general, the time of impact is
so short that all energy is absorbed locally, but for pipelines with smaller cross
sections the energy is also absorbed through global deformations. In general, the
impact energy depends on the effective mass and the effective velocity of the
trawl gear in question. The total effective mass is the sum of the steel mass of
the trawl gear and the associated hydrodynamic added mass of the entrained

water. The effective velocity is the component of the towing velocity normal to
the pipeline. In lack of detailed information of the design parameters, the
conservative values in Table 1 are applicable.
Offshore petroleum industry and fishing industry very often have to operate in
the same areas. This is particularly the case in the North Sea, and further North
on the Norwegian continental shelf. This situation of coexistence and cooperation
poses a number of engineering problems. Such a problem is that of the bottom
trawling and the sea bed pipelining.
Before offshore pipelines are installed a trench is sometimes made along parts of
the planned pipeline path. Long free spans are prone to fatigue damage and in
extreme cases the spans can be reduced by for instance rock dumping. Even
though these actions are applied, current and severe sea states will result in
erosion which can produce free spans and excavate initially buried parts.
Moreover, there will certainly exist short free spans with evident heights and
parts where the pipeline is laid freely on the seabed. In connection with bottom
trawling this clearly represents a potential risk of interference.
The Norwegian authorities requires that subsea installations shall not
unnecessarily or to an unreasonable extent impede or obstruct fishing activities
[3]. With this invariable requirement the oil companys must install their pipelines
distant to fishing zones or ensure that proper safety measures are fulfilled if
crossings are unavoidable. To fishermen it is well known that subsea installations
attract fishes and therefore the hazard of overtrawling cannot be completely
eliminated even if the pipeline is laid outside of the fishing banks.
The largest trawl gears operated today are used in the seas surrounding
Svalbard. Ship owners which operates in these waters will probably use the same
trawl gears in the Norwegian Sea and in the North Sea. It must therefore be
anticipated that trawl gears used nearby subsea pipelines will be of the same
size as the equipment used in the Greenland Sea and in the Barents Sea
Background
When a pipeline is collided with some object, it will form rather equivalent
interface forces or impact forces. These interface forces represent the extent of
load transferred form the object to the pipeline. (Zeinoddini, Parke, and Harding
2008) reported an experimental study coupled with numerical simulation in
quantifying the interface forces through impact tests on axially pre-compressed
steel tubes.
The
response
of
free-spanned
tubular
steel
members against static and dynamic lateral loads was also investigated numerically
(Zeinoddini
et
al.
1999).
Afterward, the influence of internal pressure in the collapse of steel tubes due to lateral
loads
was
investigated (Karamanos and Eleftheriadis 2004). Then, the interface forces in laterally
impacted
steel
tubes have axial pre-compressing were investigated experimentally and numerically

(Zeinoddini
2008).

et

al.

In this research, the influence of the effective span length to free span length ratio on the dynamic
response of the pipeline, subjected to lateral impact load is investigated. As far as the authors
knowledge, the effect of the effective span length to free span length ratio against the lateral impact
has not been studied in the past literature. In the current study, a parametric study has been performed
varying the symmetry conditions in loading. A 610 mm diameter oil pipeline, subjected to a lateral
impact load of 100 kN, with free span lengths of 100 m, 125 m and 150 m is simulated and analysed
for its lateral displacement at pipe mid length, reaction force and bending moment at the pipe support.
The pipeline is assumed to be operating at an internal pressure of 12 MPa, located at 40m below mean
sea level, subjected to hydrodynamic loads due to wave and currents. Hydrodynamic loads are
calculated in accordance with DNV-RP-F109 and applied as static loads. A trapezoidal force-time
history is employed to simulate the impact loading. The numerical model is validated using available
closed form solutions.
Methodology

Materials
Material properties and geometry of steel pipes are selected in such a way that they remain in the
common ranges for the oil offshore pipelines in Northern sea. Elastic perfectly plastic material
property has been assigned to the pipeline while a linear elastic material model has been used for the
seabed.

Pipe dia
Pipe thickness
Steel density
Steel Youngs modulus
Steel Poissons ratio
Concrete coating thickness
Concrete density
Corrosion coating thickness
Corrosion coating density
Insulation thickness
Insulation density
Specified minimum yield strength
Internal pressure
Current velocity
Horizontal drag force
Buoyancy force
Lift force

610mm (24in)
17.3mm
7850kg/m3
207000MPa
0.3
45mm
3050kg/m3
0.66mm
1400kg/m3
0.76mm
1400kg/m3
414MPa
12 MPa
0.3 m/s
28N/m
3869N/m
25N/m

Hydrodynamic Loads
Numerical modelling
Model Description
Numerical modelling is performed using the finite element package ANSYS version 15. A nonlinear
3D coupled seabed-pipeline simulation has been performed with maximum static hydrodynamic
loads. Finite element model consists of Pipe288 3D pipe elements to mesh the pipeline and
COMBIN14 spring elements to mesh the sea bed. The maximum size of the element size along the
length of the pipeline is kept at 2.5 m in order to compensate accuracy of the results vs the
computational time. Also geometric nonlinearity is taken in to account by allowing large
displacements.

PIPE288 is a linear, quadratic, or cubic two-node pipe element in 3-D [3].

The element has six degrees of freedom at each node (the translations in
the x, y, and z directions and rotations about the x, y, and z directions) [3].
The element is well-suited for linear, large rotation, and/or large strain
nonlinear applications [3]. The element also facilitates the properties of a
composite pipe including insulation, corrosion and concrete layers [3].

COMBIN14 has longitudinal or torsional capability in 1-D, 2-D, or 3-D

applications [3]. The longitudinal spring-damper option is a uniaxial tensioncompression element with up to three degrees of freedom at each node:
translations in the nodal x, y, and z directions [3].

Model Validation
The FE model is evaluated using available closed form solution. Verley et al.
(1991) tested a 610mm (24in) pipeline with 17.3mm thickness and 45mm
concrete cover, subjected to a pull-over force of 100 kN and 200 kN from a trawl
gear lasting to a total duration of 2s and 4s respectively. The submerged weight
of the pipeline was calculated as 700 N/m and the pipe mass including
hydrodynamic mass was found to be 880 kg/m. Initial axial tension of 1000kN
was considered and the axial soil friction factor of 0.2 was taken representing a
clay soil. 1.0 Drag coefficient and 1.0 added mass coefficient were used when
accounting for hydrodynamic forces.
A trapezoidal force-time histories were incorporated to represent the trawl pipe
interference. Tests were conducted for two span lengths 75m and 125m. The
equivalent damping factors calculated were, 100kNs/m and 117kNs/m for 100kN
and 200kN respectively. And stiffness contribution to the response is about
4kN/m.
It was thus concluded that the numerical model is able to reasonably simulate the similar
impact problems on offshore pipelines

Results and Discussion

The numerical model is analysed for an extensive parametric study and pipe
response behaviour is presented in terms of displacement, reaction forces and
bending moments with respect to time domain.

Influence of span length on

Influence of damping factor
Conclusion and Suggested further works

, (Verley et al. 1991), (Det Norske Veritas 2006),(Det Norske Veritas 2010a),(Det
Norske Veritas 2010b)(Abeele et al. 2013)
Abeele, Filip Van den, Borja Cerezalez Galvan, Pedro Ramos, and Jelle Muylle.
2013. Numerical Simulation of the Interference between Trawl Gear and
Offshore Pipelines. In 6th International Pipeline Technology Conference.
Ostend.
Alexander, Chris. 2007. Assessing the Effects of Impact Forces on Subsea
Flowlines and Pipelines. doi:10.1115/OMAE2007-29450.
Det Norske Veritas. 2006. Free Spanning Pipelines: DNV Recommended Practice
DNV-RP-F105.
. 2010a. Interference Between Trawl Gear and Pipelines: DNV
Recommended Practice DNV-RP-F111.
. 2010b. On-Bottom Stability Design of Submarine Pipelines: DNV
Recommended Practice DNV-RP-F109.
Verley, R. L. P., B. H. Moshagen, N. C. Moholdt, and I. Nygaard. 1991. Trawl
Forces On Free-Spanning Pipelines. In . International Society of Offshore
and Polar Engineers. https://www.onepetro.org/conference-paper/ISOPE-I91-102.
Zeinoddini, M., G. a. R. Parke, and J. E. Harding. 2008. Interface Forces in
Laterally Impacted Steel Tubes. Experimental Mechanics 48 (3): 26580.
doi:10.1007/s11340-007-9111-3.

1Det

Norske Veritas, Free Spanning Pipelines, 2010. (Alexander 2007)