New Method for the Prediction of the Hydrostatic Collapse Pressure of Submarine Pipelines

Adilson Benjamin¹; Divino Cunha¹

¹ PETROBRAS

doi:10.20906/CPS/CILAMCE2015-0168

Resumo

The RCA V1 database was generated in 2011. This database contains a set of nonlinear Finite Element (FE) analyses of 13 infinitely long plain pipes. Each of the 13 pipes has an external diameter equal to 457 mm (18 in) and an external diameter to thickness ratio (De / t) which varies from 5 to 45 (5 ≤ (De / t) ≤ 45). The only geometric imperfection considered is the ovalization of the pipe cross section, characterized by the ovalization parameter (fo), which, for each pipe, has the following values: 0.5%, 1.0%, 2% and 4.0%. As four FE analyses were carried out for each pipe, in total there are 52 FE analyses in the RCA V1 database. An extended version of the RCA V1 database, named RCA V2 database, was generated in 2014. This database contains a set of nonlinear FE analyses of 22 infinitely long plain pipes. Each of the 22 pipes has an external diameter equal to 457 mm (18 in) and an external diameter to thickness ratio (De / t) which varies from 5 to 300 (5 ≤ (De / t) ≤ 300). The only geometric imperfection considered is the ovalization of the pipe cross section, characterized by the ovalization parameter (fo), which, for each pipe, has the following values: 0.25%, 0.5%, 1.0%, 2.0% and 4.0%. As five FE analyses were carried out for each pipe, in total there are 110 FE analyses in the RCA V2 database. The version 1 of the RCA method (RCA V1 method) was presented by Benjamin and Cunha at OMAE 2012 Conference. The development of this method, which is a modified version of the DNV method, was based on the collapse pressures contained in the RCA V1 database of nonlinear Finite Element (FE) analyses. Originally the RCA V1 method was developed for the prediction of the collapse pressure of submarine pipelines in the design phase. Afterwards this method was chosen to be the reference method of the BCA V1 method that was presented by Benjamin and Cunha at Rio Oil&Gas Conference 2014. The version 2 of the RCA method (RCA V2 method) was developed by Benjamin and Cunha with the objective

Palavras-chave: submarine pipeline; collapse pressure