Configuration Analysis of Deepwater S-Lay Pipeline

• Published in: China ocean engineering Vol. 25; no. 3; pp. 519 - 530
• Main Author: 龚顺风 陈凯 陈源 金伟良 李志刚 赵冬岩
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Heidelberg Chinese Ocean Engineering Society 01.09.2011; Institute of Structural Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China%Offshore Oil Engineering Co. Ltd., Tianjin 300452, China
• Subjects: Axial stress; Coastal Sciences; Differential equations; Engineering; Fluid- and Aerodynamics; Laying; Marine; Marine & Freshwater Sciences; Mathematical analysis; Mathematical models; Numerical and Computational Physics; Oceanography; Offshore Engineering; Pipe; Pipelines; Simulation; Water depth; 数值迭代法; 有限元软件; 海底管线; 深水; 管道配置; 管道铺设; 轴向拉力; 配置分析; offshore pipeline; stiffened catenary theory; configuration; S-lay; stinger
• ISSN: 0890-5487; 2191-8945
• DOI: 10.1007/s13344-011-0042-5

The safety of offshore pipeline has drawn a great deal of attention during deepwater installation due to the combined actions of high external pressure, axial tension, and bending moment. Meanwhile, the pipeline configuration has a remarkable effect on the structural behaviour of the tube. The special studies focus on the deepwater S-lay technique in the present paper. The stiffened catenary theory is applied to establish the static equilibrium governing differential equation of a pipe element, and the solution equations of the total pipeline configuration from a lay-barge over a stinger to the seabed are derived, The numerical iteration method for solving pipeline configuration is described in detail, and the corresponding program is developed to conduct the analysis of effects of various parameters such as laying water depth, pipe diameter, thickness of concrete weighted coating layer, stinger length, control strain, and axial tension on pipeline configuration. The results show that the laying water depth, the submerged weight of the pipe, and the axial tension are the critical factors influencing pipeline configuration. In addition, geometrical parameters of the stinger such as length, radius, and shape have an important effect on the pipe-laying capacity of the vessel. The validity of the program is further verified by means of a comparison with results obtained from the commercial finite element software OFFPIPE.