Analytical Study for Lateral Buckling of Imperfect Pipelines With Distributed Buoyancy Section
Abstract Distributed buoyancy method is one of the buckle initiation techniques used to trigger controlled lateral buckling at planned locations for subsea pipelines operating under high temperature and high pressure (HT/HP) conditions. Deviations from a straight profile for pipelines may be introduced by the pipe-laying vessel’s sway motion during the installation process. In this study, analytical solutions of lateral buckling are deduced for imperfect unburied subsea pipelines with a distributed buoyancy section. The effect of initial imperfections on buckled configurations and typical post-buckling behaviours is illustrated and analysed. The results show that, compared to the case without initial imperfection, lateral displacement amplitude becomes larger when initial imperfection exists. Maximum compressive stress increases when wavelength of initial imperfection is smaller than buckled length of pipeline. However, maximum compressive stress decreases when wavelength of initial imperfection is larger than buckled length of pipeline. So it’s better to introduce longer wavelength of initial imperfection.