On the effect of long corrosion defect and axial tension on the burst pressure of subsea pipelines

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apor.2021.102637Get rights and content

Abstract

Due to water, sediment and chemical contaminants etc., the internal corrosion of subsea pipelines is inevitable. The internal corrosion is usually at or near the bottom of the subsea pipeline where the water and sediment can settle out of the transport medium. After some time, narrow and long defects occur in pipelines. Besides, as the temperature changes, the pipe is often stretched. Pipelines with long corrosion defect and axial tension subjected to high internal pressure have potential failure risk in service. In this paper, the effect of long corrosion defect and axial tension on the burst pressure of subsea pipelines are studied. Firstly, the pipelines with narrow and long corrosion defects are simplified as the Apollonius model. Then, a semi-empirical burst pressure equation of corroded pipelines subjected to internal pressure and axial tension is presented. Next, the accuracy of the burst pressure equation is verified by given experimental data. In the end, the effects of long corrosion defect and axial tension on burst pressure are analyzed. The results reveal that both axial tension and long corrosion defects can greatly reduce the burst pressure of pipelines. It is beneficial to assess the integrity of pipelines subjected high internal pressure and deepen the understanding of pipeline failure behavior.

Introduction

Pressure pipes are of importance to high pressure hydrogen storage, oil and gas industry, chemical engineering etc. A great deal of research has been done on the burst pressure of subsea pipeline under high pressure ((Hasan et al, 2012; Gao et al., 2020; Netto et al., 2005; Fekete and Varga, 2012; Race et al., 2020; Liu et al., 2020a; Guo et al., 2015; Keshtegar and Seghier, 2018). Numerical and experimental methods are widely used to analyze the burst pressure of pipelines with corrosion defects (Yeom et al., 2015; Fahed et al., 2020; Liu et al., 2020b; Mondal and Dhar, 2019; Mohd et al., 2015; Chandra and Sutra, 2017). However, the burst pressure of subsea pipelines with axial tension and long corrosion defects are not fully studied. Therefore, we focus on the burst pressure of pipelines with axial tension and long corrosion defects in this paper.

Pipeline studied in this paper is high strength steel pipes. In service, these pipelines are unavoidably corroded by water, sediment, or chemical contaminants present in the multi-phase flow (Netto, 2009a). Internal corrosion is usually at or near the bottom of pipelines. With the continuation of service, it tends to form narrow and long corrosion defects at the bottom of pipelines. Besides, by reason of the difference in temperature between day and night, the pipeline will expand in heat and contract in cold. It will produce axial stretching and compression. Furthermore, many pipelines are buried in soil. The restraint from soil can also compress the pipelines. In this paper, we mainly research the effect of axial tension and long corrosion defects on the burst pressure of pipelines. Both axial tension and long corrosion defects will lower the burst pressure of pipelines (Ma et al., 2013; Tee and Wordu, 2020). In order to decide on replacing corroded pipeline in time, it is necessary to study the burst pressure of pipelines. In the calculation, the burst pressure denotes the ultimate bearing capability or residual strength of the pipes. Real corrosion defects can be any size and shape. Here, we consider only single and long corrosion defects in thick-walled pipes, where the defect length is greater than its width. Cracks and crack-like flaws are not considered in this paper.

Many scholars and associations have concerned the burst pressure of pipelines with corrosion defects (Law and Bowie, 2007; Keshtegar and Miri, 2014). Most of their research focuses on failure of corroded pipelines subjected to internal pressure (See Section 2 for representative studies). For subsea pipelines with long corrosion defects subjected to internal pressure and axial tension, DNV made initial explorations (DNV, 2017), which is based on literature (Sigurdsson et al., 1999). In addition, Benjamin (Benjamin, 2008) predict the failure pressure of corroded pipelines subjected to longitudinal load and internal pressure. The pipeline subjected to internal pressure and axial tension may burst or neck (Klever, 2006). Here, we will mainly discuss the pipe burst. A novel burst pressure equation of pipelines with axial tension and long corrosion defects is presented in this paper.

Section snippets

Burst pressure equations of pipelines subjected to internal pressure

Over a century, scholars have provided many burst pressure equations of pipes under only internal pressure. Twelve representative equations of the pipes without defects are summarized in Table 1. Faupel, API, Nadai (1), Nadai (2), Soderberg and maximum stress equations are based on the von Mises criterion. Turner, ASME, Maximum shear stress and Baily–Nadai equations are based on the Tresca criterion. Klever and Zhu–Leis equations are consistent with Tresca and von Mises criteria.

Burst pressure equations of corroded pipelines subjected to internal pressure

Some

Simplification of corroded pipelines

The corrosion defects sometimes existed in pressured pipelines (Akram et al., 2020; Chin et al., 2020). The geometric shape of corrosion defects is usually irregular (Oliveros et al., 2008). Infinitely long corrosion defects are generally simplified as a plane problem to solve (Chen et al., 2014). The infinitely long corrosion defect models can be mainly divided into three categories: groove model (Fig. 1(a)), crescent-shaped model (Fig. 1(b)), as well as Apollonius model (Fig. 1(c)). Each

Burst pressure of pipelines with long corrosion defects

As mentioned in literature (Lasebikan and Akisanya, 2014), the pipes under internal pressure and axial tension may burst or neck. The pipeline will neck immediately if the axial stressσeff=σapiDm4tσb. If the axial stress σeff=σapiDm4t<σb, the pipelines will not neck. Here, we mainly research the burst behavior of pipelines with axial tension and long corrosion defects.

The burst behavior of pipes with axial tension and long corrosion defects is a typical strength problem rather than a

Comparison with experimental data

The only burst pressure experiment of the pipes under combined internal pressure and axial tension is conducted in literature (Lasebikan and Akisanya, 2014). Here, we briefly introduce the experiment procedure. The experiment was carried out by using a tubular structure shown in Fig. 4. A hydraulic pump was adopted to provide the internal pressure by compressing the hydraulic oil. A screw-driven testing machine was adopted to control the axial displacement. The forward speed is 0.5 mm/min,

Conclusions

Pressured pipelines are widely used in high pressure hydrogen storage, oil and gas transport, chemical engineering, etc. The burst pressure are important parameters of pipeline design and integrity assessment. In this paper, the burst pressure of thick-walled pipes with axial tension and long corrosion defects are examined. First, the Apollonius circle and Apollonius model are introduced. Then, a novel burst pressure equation of thick-walled pipes with long corrosion defects subjected multiple

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Zhan-Feng Chen: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Wen Wang: Visualization, Investigation. He Yang: Data curtion. Sun-Ting Yan: Validation. Zhi-Jiang Jin: Supervision.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

This work is sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51805127), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51175454).

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