Vortex induced vibration is a major cause of fatigue failure in submarine oil and gas pipelines and steel catenary risers. In their paper “Fatigue Analysis of Free Spanning Pipelines Subjected to Vortex Induced Vibrations”, dr. ir. Filip Van den Abeele and ir. Frédérique Boël, present a case study from the offshore industry, in association with Shell Exploration & Production. For a deepwater pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico, the remaining fatigue capacity of a long slender span subjected to VIV was analyzed using the DNV-RP-F105 span check offered by SAGE Profile. This powerful capability provides a quick and easy tool to evaluate the severity of free spans for a given pipeline route, and hence can save a tremendous amount of time and money associated with seabed rectification.

In this paper, an integrated numerical framework is presented to predict and identify free spans that may be vulnerable to fatigue damage caused by vortex induced vibrations (VIV). Sensitivity analyses are performed to study the influence of the seabed conditions, where special emphasis is devoted on the selection of pipe soil interaction parameters.

The paper has been presented at the International Conference on Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering (OMAE 2013).

 >> Read more – 2013