Euler Buckling of Idealised Horizontal Pipeline Imperfections

Imperfections introduced by pipelay can not be known until installation is complete; therefore a common approach is to perform finite element analysis of idealised horizontal imperfections to determine critical buckling forces. Rundsag et al 2008 [1], showed that the critical buckling force for a snake lay geometry is directly proportional to the pipeline bend radius. Rathbone et al 2008 [2] showed that, with decreasing arch lengths, the pipeline critical buckling force is proportional to the change in the offset angle. This paper looks at the relationship between the minimum critical buckling force and the horizontal offset angle of the pipeline, considering an Euler buckling approach. The resulting relationship that estimates the critical buckle load based on pipeline stiffness and weight, offset angle and friction factor is then compared against idealised finite element models.