Lateral thermal buckling of pipelines on the sea bed
type: CreativeWork
description: Subsea oil and gas exploration is increasingly moving into deeper water, where trenching of a pipeline for protection and to mitigate against upheaval buckling becomes increasingly impractical. In addition, the exploration of new reservoirs at higher temperatures and pressures than before leaves a submarine pipeline on the seabed more susceptible to lateral thermal buckling. A novel small-scale compressible base model, with an expanded polystyrene base compressed beneath a silicone rubber strip, has been developed to represent the constrained thermal loading of a pipeline lying on the seabed. This physical model is used, in addition to a nonlinear finite-element analysis, for a case study of a real buckled pipeline. Dimensional analysis is used to provide a means of comparing the post-buckled behaviour of the model strip with that of the fullsize pipeline. There is good agreement between the results of the post-buckled behaviour for the physical and finite-element models, and these results compare well with the survey data for the buckled real pipeline. General results from the physical model are also presented for strips with differing geometric and material properties, laid both straight and on a scaled lay-away curve. A useful measure of the evolution of a buckle, the free end displacement, is introduced. This is the axial displacement of the free end of a cut pipe, constrained to remain straight while undergoing thermal loading. This measure used in a study of the parameters which affect the far-post-buckling behaviour of a beam on a frictional foundation. The phenomenon of buckle lobe extinction, when a buckle lobe stops growing, is discovered for certain combinations of beam bending stiffness, axial friction coefficient and lateral friction coefficient. When the buckle length, buckle amplitude and free end displacement are formed into non-dimensional groups with these three parameters, curves for many parameter combinations are found to fall onto a single curv…
abstract: Subsea oil and gas exploration is increasingly moving into deeper water, where trenching of a pipeline for protection and to mitigate against upheaval buckling becomes increasingly impractical. In addition, the exploration of new reservoirs at higher temperatures and pressures than before leaves a submarine pipeline on the seabed more susceptible to lateral thermal buckling. A novel small-scale compressible base model, with an expanded polystyrene base compressed beneath a silicone rubber strip, has been developed to represent the constrained thermal loading of a pipeline lying on the seabed. This physical model is used, in addition to a nonlinear finite-element analysis, for a case study of a real buckled pipeline. Dimensional analysis is used to provide a means of comparing the post-buckled behaviour of the model strip with that of the fullsize pipeline. There is good agreement between the results of the post-buckled behaviour for the physical and finite-element models, and these results compare well with the survey data for the buckled real pipeline. General results from the physical model are also presented for strips with differing geometric and material properties, laid both straight and on a scaled lay-away curve. A useful measure of the evolution of a buckle, the free end displacement, is introduced. This is the axial displacement of the free end of a cut pipe, constrained to remain straight while undergoing thermal loading. This measure used in a study of the parameters which affect the far-post-buckling behaviour of a beam on a frictional foundation. The phenomenon of buckle lobe extinction, when a buckle lobe stops growing, is discovered for certain combinations of beam bending stiffness, axial friction coefficient and lateral friction coefficient. When the buckle length, buckle amplitude and free end displacement are formed into non-dimensional groups with these three parameters, curves for many parameter combinations are found to fall onto a single curv…
author: Miles, David John
language: eng
keywords: Lateral thermal buckling, Pipelines, submarine
license: https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/8e510763-5e86-4d7b-a38f-dd5e524b6cd8/download
license: https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/
license: https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/cc0750f8-adfb-4cf4-a4f9-b2823e5046c5/download
license: https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/f15d10c2-7086-4a2f-8218-7cbfe1bbd3d6/download
date published: 1998-05
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:24:24Z
provider: Cambridge University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cambridge

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.17863/CAM.14115