Control Method of Subsea Pipeline Lateral Buckling

Abstract

Lateral buckling must be considered in exposed HP/HT pipeline design. Snaked-lay method is an effective lateral buckling control method, a new shape of snaked-lay pipeline is presented. Using ANSYS, nonlinear finite element model exposed on even seabed is built. Based on the FEM, sine length and snaked-lay radius are all studied. Sensitivity analyses show that critical buckling is reduced with sine length increasing when lay radius is fixed, but when sine length exceeding a certain value, there is no further reduction in resulting critical buckling force. Maximum moment and critical buckling force are all increased with snaked-lay radius increasing, but for maximum moment when snaked-lay radii exceeding a certain value, the increment is small.