Modelling of spiral-welded pipe manufacturing and its effect on pipeline structural performance

Abstract

The increasing use of large-diameter spiral-welded pipes in demanding hydrocarbon pipeline applications constitutes an engineering challenge, which requires the definition of an appropriate strain-design framework. In the course of a large European project, numerical simulations on spiral-welded pipes are conducted to examine their bending deformation capacity in the presence of internal pressure, and their capacity under external pressure. The manufacturing process of spiral-welded tubes consists of two steps: (a) the decoiling process and subsequently, (b) cold bending process. Numerical models are developed in finite element software ABAQUS/Standard for the simulation of the above manufacturing steps. Upon completion of the manufacturing process, the residual stresses due to cold bending are calculated, and are used to examine the capacity of pipe under external pressure and bending capacity. The results from numerical models are compared with available experimental results. Furthermore, a parametric analysis is conducted in order to examine the effect of spiral cold forming process on the structural behavior of spiral welded pipes. © Copyright 2016 by the International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE).