An Assessment on the Plastic Capacity of Pipe-in-Pipe Systems Under Damage Progression Effect

In recent years, pipe-in-pipe (PiP) systems have been employed in an increasing number of subsea projects. According to the previous studies, the external pressure required to develop the initial local buckle on the PiP system is significantly higher than the pressure required to propagate the buckle along the system. In this respect, it is reasonable to investigate a novel topic where the propagation of buckle is induced by a lateral interference load instead of external pressure (e.g., diagonal fishing gear impact). On this subject, the recent studies showed the progression of plastic damage along a single-walled pipe, which is induced by a lateral load, could significantly lower the load-carrying capacity of the pipe. The present study investigates this finding for a PiP solution under a two-phase loading condition: in phase 1, the PiP solution is subject to 75 mm perpendicular indentation, and in phase 2, the resulting plastic damage in phase 1 is translated and induced longitudinally along with the PiP system. Furthermore, using finite element analyses, the effect of combined loading (axial and lateral load) on the load-carrying capacity of the PiP specimen is investigated. The test results show that upon the initiation of damage progression, the load-carrying capacity of the PiP specimen (against the lateral indentation) declines by 10%. Also, the numerical results show that the structural resistance of a PiP specimen against a lateral indentation drops significantly when the inner pipe is subject to axial compression.