BUCKLING RESPONSE OF SUBMARINE PIPELINES UNDER COMBINED TENSION AND BENDING

Deepwater pipes have to withstand the combined action of tension and bending during the installation, which can possibly lead to elliptical buckling and even catastrophic failure of the whole pipeline. The present study extends the two-dimensional model which was initially proposed by Kyriakides and his co-workers to investigate the buckling response of pipes subjected to combined tension and bending. Two types of loadings, i.e. bent over a rigid surface in the presence of tension and bent freely in the presence of tension, are investigated in detail. Adopting this model, the effects of several important factors, such as diameter-to-thickness ratio, material properties etc. are fully studied. Based upon these parametric studies, a few signifi-cant conclusions are drawn.