Out-of-Roundness in NPS30 X70 Pipes Subjected to Concentrated Lateral Load

Pipeline is the common mode for transporting oil, gas, and various petroleum products. Structural integrity of oil and gas transmission pipelines is often threatened by external interferences such as concentrated load, impact load, and external pressure. These external interferences can cause ‘mechanical damage’ leading to structural failure in onshore and offshore linepipes. Lateral load is applied as a concentrated load on a small area of pipe segment and can cause local buckling, bend, dent, or out-of-roundness in the pipe. As an example, a concentrated load in buried onshore linepipe can occur if a segment of the linepipe rests on a narrow rock tip or even a narrow hard surface. Such concentrated lateral load may or may not cause immediate rupture or leak in the linepipe; however, it may produce out-of-roundness with or without a dent in the pipe cross section, which can be detrimental to the structural and/or operational integrity of the pipeline. Hence, the pipeline operator becomes concerned about the performance and safety of the linepipe if a pipe section is subject to a sustained concentrated load. A research work using full-scale tests and finite element method (FEM) was undertaken at the Centre for Engineering Research in Pipelines (CERP), University of Windsor to study the influence of various internal pressures and diameter-to-thickness ratios on the out-of-roundness of 30 in diameter (NPS 30) and X70 grade pipes with D/t of 90 when subjected to a stroke-controlled concentrated load. This paper discusses the test specimens, test setup, test procedure, test results, and FEM results obtained from this study.