Radial Buckling of Tensile Armor Wires in Subsea Flexible Pipe—Numerical Assessment of Key Factors

Author(s):  
Alireza Ebrahimi ◽  
Shawn Kenny ◽  
Amgad Hussein

Flexible pipes can be used as risers, jumpers, and flowlines that may be subject to axial forces and out-of-plane bending motion due to operational and environmental loading conditions. The tensile armor wires provide axial stiffness to resist these loads. Antibirdcaging tape is used to provide circumferential support and prevent a loss of stability for the tension armor wires, in the radial direction. The antibirdcaging tape may be damaged where a condition known as “wet annulus” occurs that may result in the radial buckling (i.e., birdcaging mechanism) of the tensile armor wires. A three-dimensional continuum finite element (FE) model of a 4 in. flexible pipe is developed using abaqus/implicit software package. As a verification case, the radial buckling response is compared with similar but limited experimental work available in the public domain. The modeling procedures represent an improvement over past studies through the increased number of layers and elements to model contact interactions and failure mechanisms. A limited parameter study highlighted the importance of key factors influencing the radial buckling mechanism that includes external pressure, internal pressure, and damage, related to the percentage of wet annulus. The importance of radial contact pressure and shear stress between layers was also identified. The outcomes may be used to improve guidance in the engineering analysis and design of flexible pipelines and to support the improvement of recommended practices.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan José Jorquera-Lucerga ◽  
Juan Manuel GARCÍA-GUERRERO

<p>In tied-arch bridges, the way the arch and the deck are connected may become crucial. The deck is usually suspended from hangers made out of steel pinned cables capable of resisting axial forces only. However, a proper structural response, (both in-plane and out-of-plane) may be ensured by fixing and stiffening the hangers in order to resist, additionally, shear forces and bending moments. This paper studies the effect of different pinned and stiffened hanger arrangements on the structural behavior of the tied-arch footbridges, with the intention of providing designers with useful tools at the early steps of design. As a major conclusion, regarding the in-plane behavior, hangers composed of cables (either with vertical, Nielsen-Löhse or network arrangements) are recommended due to its low cost and ease of erection. Alternatively, longitudinally stiffened hangers, fixed at both ends, can be used. Regarding the out-of-plane behavior, and in addition to three-dimensional arrangements of cables, of limited effectiveness, transversally stiffened hangers fixed at both ends are the most efficient arrangement. A configuration almost as efficient can be achieved by locating a hinge at the end corresponding to the most flexible structural element (normally the arch). Its efficiency is further improved if the cross-section tapers from the fixed end to the pinned end.</p>


Author(s):  
Jose´ Renato M. de Sousa ◽  
George C. Campello ◽  
Antoˆnio Fernando B. Bueno ◽  
Eduardo Vardaro ◽  
Gilberto B. Ellwanger ◽  
...  

This paper studies the structural response of a 6.0″ flexible pipe under pure tension considering two different situations: the pipe is intact or has five wires broken in its outer tensile armor. A three-dimensional nonlinear finite element model devoted to analyze the local mechanical response of flexible pipes is employed in this study. This model is capable of representing each wire of the tensile armors and, therefore, localized defects, including total rupture, may be adequately represented. Results from experimental tests are also presented in order to validate the theoretical estimations. The theoretical and experimental results indicate that the imposed damage reduced the axial stiffness of the pipe. High stress concentrations in the wires near the damaged ones were also observed and, furthermore, the stresses in the inner carcass and the pressure armor are affected by the imposed damage, but, on the other hand, the normal stresses in the wires of the inner tensile armor are not.


Author(s):  
Alfredo Gay Neto ◽  
Clóvis de Arruda Martins

When submitted to high external pressure, flexible pipes may collapse. If the external sheath is damaged, all the external pressure is directly applied on the internal polymeric layer that transmits the loading to the carcass layer, which can fail due to this effect, leading to wet collapse. This failure mode must be taken into account in a flexible pipe design. A model can be set up neglecting the influence of the pressure armor, but this assumption may underestimate the wet collapse pressure value. This work aims to include the pressure armor effect in the numerical prediction of wet collapse. The main contribution of the pressure armor to the flexible pipe resistance to collapse is to be a constraint to the radial displacement of the carcass and the internal polymeric layers. Two models were developed to find the wet collapse pressure in flexible pipes. A first study was done using a ring approximation three-dimensional (3D) finite element method (FEM) model. Comparisons are made with more simplified models using a 3D FEM equivalent ring approximation. The aim is to clarify the mechanical behavior of the pressure armor in the wet collapse scenario. Parametric studies of initial ovalization of carcass and initial gaps and interference between polymeric layer and pressure armor are made and discussed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 258-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sana El Kalash ◽  
Elie Hantouche

Purpose This paper aims at developing a mechanical-based model for predicting the thermally induced axial forces and rotation of steel top and seat angles connections with and without web angles subjected to elevated temperatures due to fire. Finite element (FE) simulations and experimental results are used to develop the mechanical model. Design/methodology/approach The model incorporates the overall connection and column-beam rotation of key component elements, and includes nonlinear behavior of bolts and base materials at elevated temperatures and some major geometric parameters that impact the behavior of such connections when exposed to fire. This includes load ratio, beam length, angle thickness, and gap distance. The mechanical model consists of multi-linear and nonlinear springs that predict each component stiffness, strength, and rotation. Findings The capability of the FE model to predict the strength of top and seat angles under fire loading was validated against full scale tests. Moreover, failure modes, temperature at failure, maximum compressive axial force, maximum rotation, and effect of web angles were all determined in the parametric study. Finally, the proposed mechanical model was validated against experimental results available in the literature and FE simulations developed as a part of this study. Originality/value The proposed model provides important insights into fire-induced axial forces and rotations and their implications on the design of steel bolted top and seat angle connections. The originality of the proposed mechanical model is that it requires low computational effort and can be used in more advanced modelling applications for fire analysis and design.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bo Chen ◽  
Xiang Xiao ◽  
Peng-yun Li ◽  
Wan-li Zhong

The vibration control and performance evaluation on a transmission-tower line system by using friction dampers subjected to wind excitations are carried out in this study. The three-dimensional finite element (FE) model of a transmission tower is firstly constructed. A two-dimensional lumped mass model of a transmission tower is developed for dynamic analysis. The analytical model of transmission tower-line system is proposed by taking the dynamic interaction between the tower and the transmission lines into consideration. The mechanical model of passive friction damper is presented by involving the effects of damper axial stiffness. The equation of motion of the transmission tower-line system incorporated with the friction dampers disturbed by wind excitations is established. A real transmission tower-line system is taken as an example to examine the feasibility and reliability of the proposed control approach. An extensive parameter study is carried out to find the optimal parameters of friction damper and to assess the effects of slipping force axial stiffness and hysteresis loop on control performance. The work on an example structure indicates that the application of friction dampers with optimal parameters could significantly reduce wind-induced responses of the transmission tower-line system.


Author(s):  
João Fabrício Machado de Castilho ◽  
Ilson Paranhos Pasqualino

Studies on sandwich pipes, which comprise two concentric high strength steel tubes and a suitable annular material have shown good results due to their improved strength under external pressure and therefore they have been indicated as a good alternative for application in brazilian pre-salt scenario as gas and oil exportation pipelines. After installation on seabed a sandwich pipe can undergo mechanical damage caused by possible impacts of an anchor or some dropped heavy objects. When this happens, its strength under external pressure can be significantly reduced. This paper presents a numerical and experimental study of the reduced strength under external pressure (initiation pressure) of a damaged sandwich pipe. To this end, small scale sandwich pipe models were manufactured using steel tubes and PVDF in the annular space. Mechanical damages were simulated on the external surface of the models to collapse them under external pressure. The test results were compared to a three dimensional FE model simulating both the initiation pressure and the propagation pressure of the tested samples. A parametric study was carried out to analyze the sandwich pipe performance under damaged conditions.


Author(s):  
Jose´ Renato M. de Sousa ◽  
Paula F. Viero ◽  
Carlos Magluta ◽  
Ney Roitman

This paper deals with a nonlinear three-dimensional finite element (FE) model capable of predicting the mechanical response of flexible pipes subjected to axisymmetric loads focusing on their axial compression response. Moreover, in order to validate this model, experimental tests carried out at COPPE/UFRJ are also described. In these tests, a typical 4″ flexible pipe was subjected to axial compression until its failure is reached. Radial and axial displacements were measured and compared to the model predictions. The good agreement between all obtained results points that the proposed FE model is efficient to estimate the response of flexible pipes to axial compression and, furthermore, has potential to be employed in the identification of the failure modes related to excessive axial compression as well as in the mechanical analysis of flexible pipes under other types of loads.


2015 ◽  
Vol 138 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Folly Abevi ◽  
Alain Daidie ◽  
Michel Chaussumier ◽  
Marc Sartor

In this paper, an original approach is proposed to calculate the static load distribution and the axial stiffness of a planetary roller screw (PRS) mechanism. Assuming that the external loading is shared equally over an arbitrary number of rollers, only a sector of the system is represented to save on computing time. The approach consists in using a structure of bars, beams, and nonlinear springs to model the different components of the mechanism and their interactions. This nonlinear model describes the details of the mechanism and captures the shape of the nut as well as the bending deformation of the roller. All materials are assumed to operate in the elastic range. The load distribution and the axial stiffness are determined in three specific configurations of the system for both compressive and tensile loads. Further, the influence of the shape of the nut is studied in the case of the inverted PRS. The results obtained from this approach are also compared to those computed with a three-dimensional finite-element (3D FE) model. Finally, since the calculations appear to be very accurate, a parametric study is conducted to show the impact of the bending of the roller on the load distribution.


2004 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 440-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilian Zinoviev ◽  
Magdi Mohareb

A methodology for the analysis and design of laterally unsupported portal frames is proposed. A finite element model is developed to predict the elastic critical load and associated buckling mode. Regression analysis is then conducted to find lateral displacement and rotation field expressions that closely approximate the buckled configurations predicted by the finite element analysis. The obtained functions are then substituted into the total potential energy expression, and the stationarity conditions are evoked. The resulting eigen-value problem is solved for the out-of-plane buckling loads that are then compared with those based on the finite element model. The agreement between the two solutions provides an indication of the accuracy of the simplified energy solution. The member destabilizing effects induced by axial forces are separated from those induced by strong axis bending. The separation of these two effects is subsequently exploited in a two-step eigen-value procedure, aimed at determining the key member resistances defined in the interaction check of the standard CSA-S16-01, while accurately modeling the boundary conditions of the member. These are (i) compressive resistance of the member in the absence of bending effects and (ii) flexural resistance of the member in the absence of axial force effects.Key words: portal frames, lateral buckling, finite element analysis, wide flange sections, frame design, principle of stationary potential energy.


Author(s):  
José Renato M. de Sousa ◽  
Marcelo K. Protasio ◽  
Luis V. S. Sagrilo

The hydrostatic collapse strength of a flexible pipe is largely dependent on the ability of its carcass and pressure armor to resist radial loading and, therefore, its prediction involves an adequate modeling of these layers. Hence, initially, this work proposes a set of equations to estimate equivalent thicknesses and physical properties for these layers, which allows their modeling as equivalent orthotropic cylinders. These equations are obtained by simulating several two-point static ring tests with a three-dimensional finite element (FE) model based on beam elements and using these results to form datasets that are analyzed with a symbolic regression (SR) tool. The results of these analyses are the closed-form equations that best fit the provided datasets. After that, these equations are used in conjunction with a three-dimensional shell FE model and a previously presented analytical model to study the dry and wet hydrostatic collapse mechanisms of a flexible pipe. The predictions of these models agreed quite well with the collapse pressures obtained in experimental tests thus indicating that the use of the equivalent approach is promising.


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