Buckling of reinforced thermoplastic pipe (RTP) under combined bending and tension

Abstract

Nowadays composite pipelines are being widely used in the offshore oil and gas industry. However, composite pipelines are often subjected to combined bending and tension during the reeling process and offshore installations, which may lead to elliptical buckling due to the Brazier effect and material failure. The mechanical behaviour of reinforced thermoplastic pipe (RTP) under combined bending and tension is hence a significant parameter for the design of composite pipelines, and it was thoroughly investigated in this paper. Based on the nonlinear ring theory, mechanical behaviour of RTP under combined bending and tension was analysed. The formulations are based on the principle of virtual work and are solved by a numerical solution. To verify the accuracy of the theoretical formulations, an ABAQUS model was employed to simulate the buckling response of RTP under combined bending and tension. The results obtained by the theoretical method and ABAQUS simulation show excellent consistency. Furthermore, a series of sensitivity analyses were presented to highlight the influencing parameters under combined bending and tension. The proposed method will be helpful for RTP's engineering applications.