Laying Modeling of Submarine Pipelines Using Contact Elements into a Corotational Formulation

Abstract

A new finite element formulation to analyze stresses and displacements in submarine pipelines during laying operations is presented in this paper. The method is based on the corotational formulation using Bernoulli nonlinear beam elements to model the large displacements and rotations of the pipeline. The penalty method is used with spring-contact elements to accurately represent the actual boundary conditions on both the stinger and the sea floor. A comparison with a finite element formulation introduced by the authors in a previous paper is presented in order to verify the accuracy and computational effectiveness of the proposed method. A real laying case of an oil transportation submarine pipeline is also presented at the end of the paper to validate the results obtained with the developed formulation.

Mathematical Models for Model-Based Control in Offshore Pipelay Operations

“…The roller contacts are monolateral and the pipe cannot reach a radius of curvature higher than the one imposed by the stinger, and it seems reasonable to say that from the third roller from the tip and up, the pipe is displacement controlled. References to modeling of the impact of the stinger are: [11,42,43,44].…”