Study of the Sensitivity of the Guanabara Bay PE-3 Pipeline to Geometric Imperfections

This paper describes the study performed to investigate the sensitivity of the Guanabara Bay PE-3 pipeline to geometric imperfections. The main results of several FE analyses are presented. It is concluded that the PE-3 zigzag pipeline is geometrically stable when submitted to the maximum pressure loading and maximum temperature loading established in the design. Also it is shown that the von Mises stresses calculated in the analyses were below the yield strength of the pipe material.