Abstract A high demand for transport of corrosive fluids subsea has generated interest in solid corrosion resistant alloy (CRA) and bi-metal pipes. Bi-metal pipes, including hot-roll bonded (HRB) clad and mechanically lined pipes (MLP), are made of a carbon steel (CS) pipe lined with a CRA layer. Mechanically lined pipes, where the CRA liner is held inside the host pipe by means of an interference fit, offer shorter lead times and are considerably more economical than equivalent solid CRA and HRB clad pipes with a metallurgical bond between CS and CRA layers. Reel-lay is a cost-effective method for installing subsea pipelines up to 18” (457.2 mm) in diameter. However, plastic straining associated with reeling may trigger wrinkling of the CRA liner. Two approaches for safe installation of reeled MLPs have therefore been proposed: pressurised and non-pressurised reeling. This paper focuses on reel-lay installation at atmospheric pressure. Nevertheless, the numerical analysis framework presented is also applicable to MLPs installed at elevated pressure in a scenario where they are subjected to bending after being depressurised. Small-scale mechanical tests were carried out to assess the effect of manufacturing and cyclic plastic bending on the tensile behaviour of the CRA liner. After full-scale bending trials had been undertaken, they were simulated numerically to demonstrate the suitability of the proposed numerical approach for predicting liner separation from the host pipe and subsequent wrinkling during high strain bending. To improve ovality prediction, which governs liner separation and wrinkling, the authors developed an advanced metal plasticity model.

Abstract Seafloor Massive Sulfides have been expected to be future mineral resources. The grade of valuable metallic elements in ores of Seafloor Massive Sulfides is usually small percentage. If valuable minerals can be extracted from the ores on deep seafloor, the total mining cost can be reduced significantly. The authors proposed Seafloor Mineral Processing, where ores are to be ground into fine particles and separated into concentrates and tailings on seafloor. The Seafloor Mineral Processing system consists of processing units for unit operations such as grinding and separation. To investigate the applicability of flotation, which is a method to separate ore particles by using the difference in wettability of minerals, to the separation unit, measurements of contact angles of sulfide minerals at high pressures were carried out. The results suggested that the contact angles of the minerals would have relationships with pressure in depending on the kind of minerals and solutions. In addition, applying Laser-Induced breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), an optical method for elemental analysis, to measurement of metal grade of ore particles handled as slurry in the processing units was also investigated. Signals assigned to copper, zinc, and lead were successfully detected in the spectra obtained from ore particles in slurry flow.

Abstract Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) has been conducting R&D of production system for Seafloor Massive Sulfides (SMS) mining. In order to reach commercialization stage in SMS development, the pipe wear due to slurry flow is one of many technical issues to be solved. In the present paper, the authors conducted the large scale experiment using full scale pipes to obtain the various data on pipe wear, and investigated the pipe wear amount in commercial operation. In the experiment, SUS 304 and UHPE were used for the inner materials of test pieces. In addition, the test pieces were installed in the vertical, horizontal and inclined section. Then the authors estimated the thickness reduction of pipe due to slurry flow based on the experimental results.

Abstract Mechanical damage in subsea pipelines in the form of local dents / buckles due to excessive bending deformation may severely threaten their structural integrity. A dent / buckle has two significant effects on the pipeline integrity. Notably, residual stresses are set up as result of the plastic deformation and stress concentrations are created due to change in pipe geometry caused by the denting / buckling process. To assess the criticality of a dent / buckle, which often can be associated with strain induced flaws in the highly deformed metal, integrity assessment is required. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the severity of dent / buckle in a 48” subsea pipeline and to make the rerate, repair or replacement decision. This paper presents a Level 3 integrity assessment of a subsea pipeline dent / buckle with metal loss, reported in in-line inspection (ILI), in accordance with Fitness-For-Service Standard API 579-1/ASME FFS-1. In this paper, the deformation process that caused the damage (i.e. dent / buckle) with metal loss is numerically simulated using ILI data in order to determine the magnitude of permanent plastic strain developed and to evaluate the protection against potential failure modes. For numerical simulation, elastic-plastic finite element analyses (FEA) are performed considering the material as well as geometric non-linearity using general purpose finite element software ABAQUS/CAE 2017. Based on the numerical simulation results, the integrity assessment of dented / buckled subsea pipeline segment with metal loss has been performed to assess the fitness-for-service at the operating loads.

Abstract This paper presents the results of the experimental investigations carried out by the authors in order to evaluate the changes in the physico-mechanical properties of fiberglass tubing used to transport fluids between different facilities. In the near future, water injection wells will be equipped with fiberglass tubing, as an alternative to the more traditional metal tubing. The mechanical properties of fiberglass material (ultimate tensile strength, impact energy, burst pressure) have been determined for sets of 5 specimens that have been maintained (at a temperature of 80°C) in different environments and with different exposure times (hydrochloric acid: 6/24/48 hours; acetic acid: 6/24/48 hours; hydrochloric acid + hydrofluoric acid: 6/24/48 hours; xylene: 1/2/3 months; condensates: 1/2/3 months).

Abstract This paper presents the results of the research work carried out by the authors in order to evaluate the efficiency of the composite material wraps/sleeves (made of a polymeric matrix and reinforcing fabric) used to repair steel pipelines carrying hydrocarbons upon which local metal loss defects (generated by corrosion and/or erosion processes) have been detected. The pipeline repair technologies consisting of the application of composite material wraps are perceived as being advantageous alternative solutions for substituting the conventional technologies, which require welding operations to be performed in the pipe areas with defects. The efficiency of the composite repair systems has been investigated by assessing the reinforcement effects (the restoration level of the damaged pipe mechanical strength) generated by the applied composite wraps as a function of their geometry and mechanical properties. To that purpose, numerical models based on finite elements have been developed and certified by comparing them with the results of several experimental programs previously performed by the authors. Finite elements simulations have also been conducted in the plastic region, taking into account material non-linearity. The calculation methods proposed in literature (among which a method previously developed by the authors) to define the composite wrap dimensions (thickness and length) for a given pipe have also been investigated and compared to our numerical results in order to select the most adequate solution for the design of the composite repair system. The optimal values for the mechanical properties of the composite material used by the repair system have also been defined.

Abstract The composition of seawater plays a very significant role in determining the severity of corrosion process in marine assets. The influential contributors to the general and pitting corrosions in marine structures include temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO), salinity, PH, chlorides, pollutants, nutrients, and microbiological activities in seawater. The Cu-Ni (90/10) alloy is increasingly used in marine applications such as heat exchangers and marine pipelines because of its excellent corrosion resistant properties. Despite the significant advancements in corrosion shielding procedures, complete stoppage of corrosion induced metal loss, especially under rugged marine environments, is practically impossible. The selection of appropriate metal thickness is merely a multifaceted decision because of the high variability in operating conditions and associated corrosion rate in various seawater bodies across the globe. The present research study aims to analyze the early phase of corrosion behavior of Cu-Ni (90/10) alloy in open-sea conditions as well as in pollutant-rich coastal waters of the Arabian Sea. Test samples were placed under natural climatic conditions of selected sites, followed by the mass loss and corrosion rate evaluation. The corrosion rate in the pollutant-rich coastal waters was around five times higher than in the natural seawater. A case study on marine condenser (fitted with of Cu-Ni 90/10 alloy tubes) is presented, and a risk-based inspection (RBI) plan is developed to facilitate equipment designers, operators, and maintainers to consider the implications of warm and polluted seawater on equipment reliability, service life, and subsequent health inspection/ maintenance.

Abstract Welded connections are a fatigue sensitive location for offshore steel catenary risers. The susceptibility to fatigue is due to the notch effect of the weld and the gradient in microstructure and material properties across the weld which result from welding thermal cycles and differences in the composition of the parent material and weld metal. In this work, a representative full-scale steel catenary riser girth weld is conducted using X100Q steel. The thermal and strain history in the weld zone are captured using a thermocouple and strain gauge array. A parallel programme of Gleeble thermomechanical simulation is implemented to develop microstructurally uniform heat affected zone (HAZ) test specimens. The parent material, weld metal, simulated HAZ and a cross-weld sample are characterised using a programme of nanoindentation, tensile and fatigue testing. A softened region with microstructure corresponding to intercritical HAZ (ICHAZ) is identified in the girth weld. Tensile and fatigue failures are shown to occur in a representative microstructural region for simulated HAZ specimens, indicating a susceptibility to failure in the ICHAZ for matched or over-matched X100Q welds.

Abstract Modern high Charpy toughness steels can nonetheless show low crack arrest toughness[1]. In this paper, the relationship between initiation and arrest toughness is investigated in five different carbon steels, including S355 structural steels, X65 pipeline steel, and high strength reactor pressure vessel, RPV, steels. The results from small-scale mechanical tests, including instrumented Charpy, drop weight Pellini, fracture toughness, and tensile testing (including STRA in the through-thickness direction) were used to determine the behaviour of the different steels in terms of initiation fracture toughness and crack arrest toughness parameters. There was no correlation between the upper shelf initiation toughness and the arrest toughness when the results from the five steels were collated. The mechanical test results were then correlated to the steels’ microstructural characteristics, including parent metal microstructure, average grain size and grain aspect ratio to identify the relative roles of microstructure and texture in the fracture initiation and arrest performance of carbon steels.

Abstract Correlations between Charpy energy transition temperatures and other fracture mechanics parameters have been widely used for many years in steel failure analysis and design. The primary value transferred often has been a transition temperature, such as the 27 J transition temperature. This approach does not consider the scatter in the transition temperature or in the overall Charpy data. This work uses a scatter assessment tool developed by Orynyak et al. and applies it to a wider variety of steels and weldments to see whether it can provide a second parameter to be transferred to fracture assessment. Examples include pipeline steel and structural steel, as well as weldments in both the weld metal and heat-affected zone. While Charpy transition scatter is expected to be high in heat-affected zones, examples can be found in base metals with similarly high scatter.

Abstract Mechanical behavior of flexible risers can be challenging due largely to its complex design generating strong nonlinear problems. Nonlinear material properties, as one of them, from polymer layers dominate the overall viscoelastic responses of flexible risers which may play an inevitable role on the global analysis in deepwater application. An alternative to predict the viscoelastic behavior comprising of the time domain and the frequency domain has been proposed recently by the authors (Liu and Vaz, 2016). Given the fact that polymeric material properties are temperature-dependent and that the temperature profiles in flexile risers vary continuously in both axial and radial direction, the temperature of the internal hydrocarbons must affect the viscoelastic responses. However, such phenomenon dose not draw much attention in previous studies. This paper presents an improved model for overcoming some drawbacks in the proposed model involving assumption of steady temperature distribution in polymer layer and no gap appearance between the adjacent layers. The computing method of model is developed by using a step by step test approach. Consequently, some important parameters like equivalent axial stiffness, contact pressure or gap between the near layers, and force-deformation relationship can be observed. Parametric studies are conducted on the axisymmetric viscoelastic behavior of flexible risers to study the role of input temperature and loading frequency. Results show that equivalent axial stiffness given by the improved model is smaller than before. It can also be found that the gap between metal layer and polymer layer appear easily and increases as time goes on.

A three-phase laboratory test qualification program for Titanium Stress Joint (TSJ) use in an offshore steel catenary riser (SCR) system handling hot, marginally sour well brine fluid offers guidance for expanded, safe TSJ use in hot sour well service. Phase 1 results indicated a reasonable concern and risk for long-term excessive hydrogen uptake and damage to the TSJ when directly coupled with the steel riser and steel topside piping. An alternative TSJ design, incorporating an Alloy 625 cathode buffer transition between adjoining steel tubulars, was proposed for mitigation of galvanic hydrogen charging uptake and damage prevention for hot sour fluid service. This “Tri-Metal couple” design was modeled in Phase 2 using polarization curves as input, and simulations projected insignificant hydrogen charging on TSJ bore surfaces exposed to “Worst-Case Sour” brine fluid at 250°F (121°C). Phase 3 aimed at qualifying the TSJ welds for even more severe and acidic sour well fluid service conditions up to 275°F (135°C), via fatigue crack growth rate (FCGR) and J-R fracture toughness testing of weld metal, and S-N fatigue and slow strain rate (SSR) tensile testing of cross-welds. These tests confirmed the high degree of hot sour environmental resistance for Grade 29 Titanium welded joints, and reasonable compatibility with TSJ design requirements.

This work presents a numerical-experimental methodology to study the fatigue behavior of dented pipes under internal pressure. A full-scale experimental program on dented pipes containing gouges were achieved. Two types of defects were studied: metal loss (plain dent) and sharp notch. Both defects acting independently reduce the fatigue life performance but their combination is highly detrimental and must be avoided . We did not find a severity threshold (e.g. dent depth or crack depth) where these defects could coexist. In addition, based on numerical analyses we proposed a new expression for stress concentration factor (SCF) in line with transversal indentation. This information was successfully integrated into a simple fatigue model where the fatigue life predictions were practically inside the window of experimental results.

Additive manufacturing (AM) also known as 3D printing is defined as a bottom-up layer on layer process of joining materials to make objects from 3D CAD models. Of particular interest in this paper is a powder bed fusion technique, namely Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) method to sinter metal powders. The advantages of metal 3D printing, e.g. high strength-to-density ratio, rapid prototyping, etc. are the motivations to employ this new disruptive technology in the marine sector, besides its current applications in medical, defense, aerospace, and automotive industries. The current study is part of a series of collaborative work initiated by Marine Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence (MAMCE) in which the bending strain capacity of two welded linepipes at the most critical failure point of SCR (i.e. touch-down zone) was examined. This paper comprises two main sections; in the first part a continuum finite element model was developed to simulate welding induced residual stresses and the results were calibrated with existing data in published literature; and the last part is dedicated to examination of bending strain capacity of the welded pipe. The methodology is used for two different model; a conventional stainless steel pipe; and a hybrid (i.e. Maraging steel-stainless steel) riser made using 3D metal printing technique in existence of welding induced residual stresses (i.e. section one). A comparison between the hybrid SCR model and conventional carbon steel one under similar conditions was presented providing valuable perspective over bending performance of each kind. The major outcomes of this paper are the residual stress pattern and bending moment-curvature graphs for both types of the pipe configurations, which comparatively demonstrate the significance of the type of manufacturing (AM and conventional methods), and existence of welding residual stress and internal pressure on bending behavior of SCR.

Well construction relies on metal pipes called casing to maintain its integrity during the life of the well. From surface to the target depths the inserted casings are used to prevent well collapse, hence being exposed to external pressure loads. Also the casing in place must hold the internal pressure during well operations, which is called burst resistance. During the past decades the manufacturing process of casing and tubing has been dramatically improved, but their testing has suffer very little changes. It is known to date that API calculation of collapse resistance is very conservative, most of the modern pipe mills being able to deliver pipes with higher collapse pressure than API calculated values. The paper will describe the actual testing procedure of collapse testing of pipes and critically discuss about the human error that is introduced during these measurements. The results shows that only through high quality laboratory standards, such errors can be mitigated, while automation must be carefully considered.

Here, we experimentally studied the vortex-induced motion (VIM) of a free-standing riser (FSR; 1:65 scale model) with and without a porous metal screen (‘sheath’) placed co-centrically around the buoyancy can (BC). Specifically, we investigated the effects of mesh orientation (square and square rotated 45° in its own plane) and screen-BC diameter ratio (1.1 and 1.2) over a range of flow velocities. BC motions were recorded with a submersible camera; and inline (IL) and cross-flow (CF) amplitudes were then estimated with a motion tracking software. As expected, the installation of the screen changed the natural frequency of the models. Furthermore, the screen increased the reduced velocity at which the lock-in occurred, delaying it by a factor of ∼1.2 and ∼1.4 for the CF and IL respectively. All sheathed models had a prominent reduction in IL amplitudes compared to the bare/unsheathed BC; and at smaller flow velocities, the sheathed models also exhibited significantly lower CF motions, particularly those with a greater screen-BC diameter ratio.

During the process of workpiece productions in metal forming industries, it is necessary to control the results of the reshaped piece to ensure its quality. A common procedure of metal plate forming processes is given by the application of an upper and lower die. Therefore, ribbed die configurations can be used. To simulate the forming process of metal workpieces, the Finite Element Method (FEM) is a feasible tool. In this paper, a parametric model of a ribbed die structure is developed with the specification that only small imperfections on the workpiece surfaces will appear after the forming process. The workpieces in this paper are plates with thickness values equal and greater than 20mm. Furthermore, the springback behaviour of the different workpieces will be in the main focus of the proposed analyses. The results of the simulations are used to developed different types of holder configurations instead of the lower die. This concept might further reduce the costs of forming processes of large metal plates.

Mud pumps are essential components of the drilling rig, since they support the drilling process, and are required to operate 24/7. Their ability to generate high pressure at relatively high flow rates led to a wide application of reciprocal pumps, from mud pumps to fracking pumps, within the oil and gas business. The elements of the mud pump, especially the mud pump valve, are exposed to erosion-corrosion processes during the pumping operations because of the solids and the corrosive components of the pumped fluid which leads to a drastically reduction of their durability. The downtime of such a pump may add high costs to the drilling or fracking operations, and any improvement of the components durability helps. The mud circulation system is of main interest during the drilling operation, with 7% of the personnel time being spent on mud pumps and 26% on monitoring from the total time spent in the mud area. The present paper shows the experimental results regarding the hard metal deposition of high erosion/abrasion resistance materials on the valve seat’s working surfaces, and the use of the welding process in order to increase their durability, and eventually, to establish the possibility of reconditioning the mud pump valve. The experiments were performed on used valves as part of their reconditioning process, but can also be performed on new elements, as means to increase the durability and erosion resistance. The results are very promising and show a good and strong hard metal deposition with very good mechanical properties. The paper describes the steps and the specific pre and post welding treatment in order to achieve the optimum hard-facing parameters.

The objective of this work is to present and review the recent developments in the experimental and numerical assessment and simulation techniques on the welding induced distortions and residual stresses. The temperature distribution, welding induced distortion and residual stresses in thin walled welded structures, originating from different experimental tests are reviewed and discussed. Different mathematical models and their numerical applications in representing the heat source are analysed and their advantages and drawbacks are discussed. Thermal stress analyses employing the three-dimensional nonlinear thermo-elasto-plastic approaches and finite element simulations with inherent deformation applicable to large-scale and complex welded structures are also revised and discussed. Discussions on the material properties of the base metal, heat affected zone (HAZ) and weld metal, the effect of the welding sequence, and the pattern of residual stress distribution presented are given a special attention.

It is commonly understood that residual stresses can have significant effects on structural integrity. The extent of such influence varies and is affected by material properties, manufacturing methods and thermal history. Welded components such as pipelines are subject to complex transient temperature fields and associated thermal stresses near the welded regions. These thermal stresses are often high in magnitude and could cause localized yielding around the deposited weld metal. Because of differential thermal expansion/contraction episodes, misfits are introduced into the welded regions which in turn generate residual stresses when the structure has cooled to ambient temperature. This paper is based on a recently completed Joint Industry Project (JIP) led by DNV GL. It briefly reviews published experimental and numerical studies on residual stresses and strength-mismatched girth welds in pipelines. Several Finite Element Analysis (FEA) models of a reeling simulation have been developed including mapping an initial axial residual stress (transverse to the weld) profile onto a seamless girth-welded pipe. The initial welding residual stress distribution used for mapping was measured along the circumference of the girth welds. The predicted residual stresses after reeling simulation was subsequently compared with experimental measurements.