Overview of the SAFEBUCK JIP

Abstract

Abstract This paper summarizes key areas of research and development undertaken by the SAFEBUCK Joint Industry Project (JIP), including the development of engineering models and the testing of pipe-soil interaction, fatigue and local buckling. The SAFEBUCK Joint Industry Project set out to address one of the key design challenges for pipelines - buckling due to the compressive forces created by internal pressure and temperature - by supporting and guiding a design approach that deliberately encourages pipelines to buckle, but in a controlled way. By controlled initiation of lateral buckles at regular intervals, the loads are shared and reduced at each buckle site. Early application of this idea was hounded by problems due to a lack of know-how, which led to a number of failures, including three full-bore ruptures and one abandonment, mostly due to the issue not being addressed correctly in design. A related challenge addressed by the JIP, is pipeline walking, which has been observed on a number of pipelines, leading to one failure and a number subsea interventions to prevent future failure. With the JIP now entering its third and final phase, the design guideline and research findings have been applied on a number of projects. This is therefore a good opportunity to present the SAFEBUCK design methodologies and research to a wider audience, and outline work underway now, in the final phase. A series of papers follow in the same session at OTC 2011, to provide more detail on the SAFEBUCK Design Guidance, research findings and the practical application of this technology to the lateral buckling and walking of pipelines.