Offshore Pipeline

Application

Oil and Gas industry operators; Offshore engineering contractors; Pipeline installation contractors.
Introduction

Pipeline performs fast 3D static, non-linear stress analysis of various situations encountered during offshore pipeline installation and operation. The program analyses:

* pipe laying using a barge with stinger or ramp
* pipe lifting or pulling operations
* pipe towing
* pipe spanning on an irregular seabed
* pipe installation start-up, recovery and abandonment procedures.

Current may be applied from any direction together with axial and lateral seabed friction. In addition, cables and buoys can be positioned at any point along the pipe.

Pipeline can assist the pipeline engineer at any stage during the design of a pipeline operation and can even be used on-board to give fast assessment of the effect of changing key parameters on the pipeline stress distribution and pipeline position.

Pipeline uses a finite difference scheme to solve the governing equation system. This scheme is coupled with a damping procedure in order to achieve fast convergence.

Key controlling parameters for each application have been identified and the user may change these parameters and restart from a previous analysis. This is useful for performing parametric studies (e.g. the effect of applied end tension on sagbend stress in a pipe lay analysis) or for fine-tuning a complex operation (e.g. the effect of changing cable tensions in a lifting operation).

Pipeline provides full screen menu-driven interactive input with extensive data checking. Reporting is controlled by menu and can produce tabular or graphical output for all analysis results (configuration, forces or stresses).
Technical capabilities

* Analysis
- static analysis with optional current loading and axial/lateral friction
- restart facility for parametric study of different load cases.
* Structural details and mesh
- pipeline defined by cross-sectional properties and properties of coatings and contents
- cables attached between any fixed point in space and any position on the pipe
- buoys/point loads applied at any position along the pipe
- change in element length along the pipeline.
* Boundary conditions
- tension boundary condition for installation using lay barge
- automatic generation of stinger and ramp geometry
- pipe contact with stinger/ramp providing reaction forces
- free boundary condition for lifting operations
- cable attachment for pulling operations.
* Environmental conditions
- current applied in any direction with allowance for input of any user-defined current profile
- flat seabed with reaction and friction models (axial and lateral)
- user-defined irregular seabed with reaction and friction models (axial and lateral).

User friendliness

* Screen menu-driven interactive input
- multi-structured menu system
- full description prompts and input fields
- help function available for each screen.
* Control of data input, analysis and output
- all input data entered and modified through the menus and screens (no special text editors required)
- full automatic error checking at input level with informative error messages
- processing and reporting under menu control.

Result output and presentation

* Report file contents
- screen or hard copy output for tabular and graphical results
- input data report in tabular format
- output tables of pipe configuration, forces, and stresses.
* Graphical output
- graphical output of final pipe profile showing pipe, surface, seabed, buoys, etc.
- individual plots of all forces and stresses
- control of plotted information by selection of start and end node.

Availability

* Pipeline runs under Windows 98, NT, 2000, XP and requires a USB port
* the program is supplied with a comprehensive User Manual, set of examples and USB hardware lock
* a free demonstration version of Pipeline is available; this includes all program menus, options and functions (except analysis).

Support service

* software updates
* documentation updates
* telephone, e-mail and web support.

Consultancy

Zentech offers a comprehensive offshore analysis service. Pipeline is one of several products used to meet the demands of the industry. We are always pleased to discuss the addition of new features to meet the particular requirements of a client.