Experiences with thick walled offshore pipelines

Dr. Michael Grf

Europipe Deutschland GmbH, Muelheim, Germany
Dr. G. Vogt
Europipe GmbH, Ratingen, Germany

9th International Conference and Exhibition

3-5-November 1997

EUROPIPE. The world trusts us.

EXPERIENCES WITH THICK WALLED OFFSHORE PIPELINES

M. Grf
Europipe GmbH, Werk Mlheim
G. Vogt
Europipe GmbH
A new challenge to the pipe manufacturer and the pipelaying contractor is
offshore pipelines in deeper waters. A consortium has been carrying out a
feasibility study since 1993 for a gas transmission pipeline from Oman to
India. Various other projects are also concerned with pipeline construction in
the Arabian Sea.
The planned subsea pipeline from Oman to India has a length of about
1200 km. The speciality of this pipeline is the water depth up to 3500 m,
which is 4 times deeper than the deepest pipeline today. Figure 1 shows one
of the possible routes from Oman to India through the Arabian Sea.
No compressor station will be installed in the entire offshore region of the
pipeline [1].
To prevent the pipeline from collapsing under an ambient external pressure
of about 350 bar, the line pipe to be used has to meet stringent
requirements. The most important requirements for the pipe are shown in
Figure 2. The extreme pipe geometry consists of a wall thickness of 41 mm at
an inside diameter of 610 mm. An exclusive order was awarded in 1995 to
Europipe to produce the first 1000 m of pipe for weIdability trials and an
option for the supply of 7000 m of pipe to be laid on a trial basis in 3500 m
deep water. However in March 1996 the government of Oman decided to
postpone the project, so that it will not be realised in this decade. However, it
can be expected that other projects of this kind will come up in the near
future.

Mechanical strength and geometry of the pipe are the two most important
factors influencing collapse strength. High strength values, which need to be
uniform over the pipe circumference, reduce the susceptibility of pipe to
collapsing. The material for the pipe will therefore be grade X 70 (non-sour).
For offshore pipelines, the pipe is often required to meet the requirement for
yield strength also in the longitudinal direction. The toughness requirements
are quite high at > 200 J average (Charpy) and > 150 J individual for the
base material and > 100 J average and > 75 J individual for the weld. DWT
test and CTOD test are also specified. Out-of-roundness of the pipe has a
detrimental effect on collapse strength. Hence, the requirement for out- ofroundness reads: as low as possible, but 4 mm maximum.
This presentation will report on the statistical results of this test production of
pipe with these extreme dimensions and on same important pipe properties
as investigated in special tests to determine properties such as collapse
pressure and ductile to brittle transition temperature.
DEVELOPMENT IN REQUIREMENTS AND MATERIALS
Production of structural pipe of 40 mm thickness in grade B or grade X 52
has been the state of the art for several years. The toughness requirements
for these thick wall pipes have not been very severe. There has been no
requirement for the performance of the DWT test. Also oil transmission
pipelines are not required to meet any DWT test requirements. Figure 1
shows the increasing demand for thick wall pipes in recent years.
The material grades for oil and gas transmission lines are typically between
X 60 and X 70. The offshore pipelines are required to meet the strength
requirements not only on the transverse specimens but also on the
longitudinal specimens. It is important to note that the pipes 660 mm O.D.
x 41.0 mm W.T. (26 x 1.614) produced in 1992 have been used as buckle
arrestors for a subsea pipeline in the Mediterranean Sea.
The carbon, manganese and sulphur contents of steels for sour service
pipelines are restricted to ensure HIC resistance. A 1067 mm O.D. x
39.7 mm W.T. (42" x 1.563) grade X 60 pipeline for India may be
considered as the representative of the state of the art for sour service.
The toughness requirements have been progressively exceeded in recent
years. For instance, the specified value for the 85 % shear area transition
temperature measured on the DWT specimen has been reduced to -10 C.
Similarly, the specified minimum value for impact energy has been raised
from 50 J to 200 J.
2

Special alloying and processing measures had to be adopted to meet these

requirements.
For given chemical composition and rolling parameters, the strength
decreases as the pipe wall thickness increases. In parallel. the 85 % shear
area transition temperature measured in the DWT test shifts to higher values.
The latter is a section size effect and is not related to materials quality.
Thicker wall favours plane strain condition in the specimen and thereby leads
to an increase in the transition temperature, even when the microstructure is
identical.
Metallurgically, the yield and tensile strengths of the material can be
increased by increasing the alloy content. Carbon, manganese and the
microalloying elements niobium and vanadium play an important role in this
connection.
For sour service line pipe, carbon and manganese contents are restricted
because high HIC resistance is needed. Hence, vanadium and niobium
additions are made to these materials to increase the strength. From the
alloying point of view, sour service linepipe in grade X 65 can be produced
today with a wall thickness up to 35 mm (1.378).
For non-sour service, carbon and manganese contents can be raised so that
line pipe in grade X 70 with a wall thickness up to 41 mm (1.614) can be
produced. Further alloying elements that may be used to increase the yield
and tensile strength include molybdenum, copper and nickel.
Even in the case of non-sour service line pipe, the carbon content has to be
restricted because of the requirements for field weIdability, which can be
expressed in terms of the carbon equivalent. Because of the enhanced
toughness requirements for the 711 mm O.D. x 41 mm W.T. (28 x 1.614)
line pipe to be used in the construction of the Oman-lndia pipeline, the
carbon content has to be reduced, compared to the already mentioned pipe
26" O.D. x 1.614 W.T.
In contrast, an increased carbon content has a favourable effect on the
results of the DWT test. This can be attributed to the fact that an increased
carbon content favours the development of separations, thereby reducing the
ductile-brittle transition temperature. Increased manganese contents also
have a favourable effect. Accordingly. in the DWT test the performance of
thick wall line pipe with restricted carbon and manganese levels is less
favourable than that of a line pipe with increased carbon and manganese
contents.
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PIPE PRODUCTION

Forming pipe with such a high thickness-to-diameter ratio represents a great

challenge to the forming equipment, e. g. the crimping press, U-ing press,
O-ing press and mechanical expander. Extensive laboratory work involving
finite element analysis at Mannesmann Forschungsinstitut has been
conducted to determine the parameters needed for forming the pipe and the
loads on the forming equipment. The results indicated that for a full scale
production in excess of those for the 1000 m order it would be necessary to
re-design the tools.
The 1000 m order was carried out drawing upon the results of extensive
rolling experiments and pipe trial production. A Mn Nb V microalloyed steel
with a nickel content of 0.22 % was used in this case. Because of the low
carbon content of only 0.09 %, the carbon equivalent was quite low,
at 0.20 %, as calculated from the PCM formula (Figure 4).
For the seam weld, an S2 Mo Ti B alloyed weld metal was used. Figure 4 also
includes the chemical composition of the weld metal of the seam weld made
by the multiple-wire submerged-arc welding.
Figures 5 and 6 show the tensile properties of the production pipe. The
flattened rectangular specimen was used, because these values correspond
much better to the real pipe behaviour. All values fulfil the minimum
requirements of the specification in longitudinal and transverse direction and
are in a very narrow scatter band. The strength values on round bar
specimens are considerably lower. This is effected by the specimen location,
which is near the inside surface of the pipe, where the highest compressive
stresses occur during forming.
As the compressive yield strength is important to the collapse pressure,
which will be shown later, also compression specimens were tested.
In view of the chemical composition exhibiting low sulphur and carbon
content, the toughness values of the base material are very high. All values
are equal and in excess of 200 J. The ductile-brittle transition temperature
was determined by means of full-section DWTT specimens. The shear area
fractions measured for a test temperature of -10 C are all in excess of 85 %.

The strength of the seam weld (Fig. ) was determined by means of flattened
transverse specimen. All specimen broke in the base material.
Figure 8 demonstrates the toughness level of the weld seam. Due to the TiBweld metal, the toughness level is comfortably high and in the range of
150 J, on average. This is applicable to the inside and outside welds.
Beside the mechanical properties the pipe geometry is of high importance,
because it is a governing factor on the collapse strength of the pipes.
Figure 9 shows the statistical distribution of the pipe ovality which was the
most critical requirement to be met. The majority of the pipes have an outof-roundness value of 2 to 3 mm, which is an acceptable figure, considering
that an ideal round pipe is technically not possible for a lot of reasons. The
diameter tolerance measured with a circumferential tape, resulted in less
than + 1 mm which is an excellent figure in comparison with normal
specification requirements (+ 1.6 mm).

COLLAPSE PRESSURES
Subsea pipelines laid in deep waters are subjected not only to internal
pressure but also to external pressure, the level of which depends on the
ambient water depth. As a result, the pipe may suffer buckling.
The failure mechanism of a pipe under external pressure is a problem of
stability and therefore more complex than that of a pipe under pure internal
pressure. Although same analytical methods exist on the general theory of
pipe failure, their applicability to large- diameter and relatively thick-walled
pipes has not yet been well- established experimentally.
It is particularly necessary to establish the effect of pipe ovality and material
strength on the collapse behaviour of the pipe, and to compare the
experimental results with the results of published work [2].
Whether or not a pipe fails by plastic buckling under a given external
pressure depends also on its compressive yield strength. Due to the
Bauschinger effect the compressive yield strength of a cold formed and
expanded pipe, e.g. that manufactured by the UOE process, is smaller than
the yield strength measured in a tensile test.

Attempts made to eliminate the Bauschinger effect by thermal treatments,

e.g. stress relieving at 550C, were reported in the literature [3]. It had been
indeed possible to increase the compressive yield strength or the buckling
strength by such thermal treatments, but they will be associated here with a
degradation of the mechanical properties of the weld. Work carried out at
Mannesmann Forschungsinstitut indicated that a simple thermal treatment at
about 200C for a few minutes is sufficient to achieve the desired effect
without any associated degradation of the remaining properties.
A pressure vessel was fabricated, which served as the equipment to carry out
the collapse tests on pipes. Figure 10 shows a schematic drawing of the
pressure vessel. The test pipes were converted into test specimens by closing
their ends with hemi-spherical caps. The test specimens were placed in the
pressure vessel as shown in Figure 10. The annulus between the test
specimen and the pressure vessel was filled with water and pressurized to
generate a hydrostatic external pressure on the inner test pipe. The pressure
vessel had a total length of 12m (40 ft). The length of the pressure vessel
ensured that pipes of adequate length could be tested so that the test results
can be translated to pipe strings of "infinite" length. Application of strain
gauges enabled the ovalisation and buckling of the test pipe to be monitored
continuously during the test.
Figure 11 gives the details of the pipes collapse-tested using this
experimental set-up and the results of the tests. The values shown as
calculated collapse pressures were determined by the analytical procedure
described in ref. [4]. The calculated values are greatly dependent on the
compressive yield strength, which can be determined experimentally, and on
the initial ovality.
As can be seen, there is nearly no difference in buckling pressure between
pipes of different strength for a given level of ovality with one exception. The
effect of compressive yield strength of the material on the buckling pressure
is quite significant in the case of pipes with a thicker wall.
The largest difference between calculated collapse pressure (pmax = 359 bar)
and measured collapse pressure (pmax = 311 bar) was noticed in the case of
the pipe of the size 28" O.D. x 35.6 mm W.T. This discrepancy between
calculation and measurement is to be attributed to the scatter of the
Bauschinger effect in the pipe body, which is difficult to control.

Furthermore, it is remarkable that the 28 O.D. x 41.0 mm W.T. pipe

subjected to a heat treatment has a higher collapse pressure than does the
pipe of the same diameter (not heat treated) but with a higher wall thickness
of 44.0 mm. This result can also be explained in terms of the Bauschinger
effect. As a result of the thermal treatment (at 200C) prior to testing, the
Bauschinger effect on the mechanical strength of the pipe material was
almost completely eliminated.
The results of the collapse tests carried out in the course of this work are in
good agreement with the data published in the literature [5,6], as can be
seen in Figure 12 . The figure shows the collapse pressures predicted by the
various models as a function of diameter-to-thickness ratio. It may be
observed that the collapse pressures predicted by the various theoretical
models differ from one another significantly. The Shell collapse formula was
developed empirically and the predictions made by this formula agree best
with the collapse pressures measured in the tests of the present work.

DUCTILE TO BRITTLE TRANSITION TEMPERATURE

It is usually recommended to ensure that when a gas transmission pipeline
ruptures the rupture should be ductile. The lowest operation temperature
must therefore be above the ductile-brittle transition temperature. For
determining this transition temperature for thin wall pipes the drop weight
tear test using standard pressed-notch (PN) specimens according to API has
proven a successful means [7].
In the case of thick wall pipes it was not clear whether the remaining, nearly
quadratic ligament can define the true transition temperature. Moreover, in
this case there is a need for a very high impact energy of the test equipment.
It was the intention of the tests as described in the following to compare the
transition temperatures of the PN-DWTT specimens with those of the socalled West Jefferson tests, as this full-size test has been proven a successful
means for the definition of the true transition temperature of line pipe [8].
The test pipes for the three West Jefferson tests (20 feet long) were
prepared at the mill. The test procedure corresponded to that well known
from the literature. The testing of all the pipes was conducted at a stress
level equal to 72 percent of the specified minimum yield strength. The
temperatures at which the West Jefferson tests were to be conducted had
been selected in most cases so as to obtain the upper part of the transition
curve as well as possible.
7

In the course of this work the materials H and I were tested (Fig. 13). For
material H the test temperatures of -36 C and -51C resulted in a shear area
of the fractured surface of 65 % and 32 % respectively. Material I showed a
shear area of 85 % at -21C. Figures 14 and 15 compare these results with
the transition curve obtained from the full-wall PN-DWTT specimens and
demonstrate a very good agreement in all cases.
These results supplement the test results from previous investigations [7,9]
for heavy wall pipes above 19 mm wall thickness (Fig. 16). The solid circles
refer to the earlier tests while the open circles correspond to the new results.
Shear areas of 85 % or more measured on the PN-DWTT specimen result in
a ductile fracture appearance in the full scale tests. Shear fracture areas
below 85 % are also well-predicted by the full-wall PN-DWTT specimen. As
for materials below 19 mm wall thickness it is confirmed that the PN-DWTT
specimen with full wall thickness is also a most suitable test procedure for
heavy wall line pipe, if the available energy of the test machine is sufficient.

SUMMARY
The results on the 1000 m of pipe produced have clearly shown that it is
technically and economically possible to produce pipes which can statistically
fulfil the requirements of deep sea projects. It should however be noted that
this range of pipe dimensions is close to the borderline for a mill/plate mill
production. This is not only due to the press capacities which only a few pipe
mills have installed but more due to the limits on two pass welding which is
the basis for an economical high speed production in a pipe mill.
The results of the collapse tests carried out with this kind of pipe are in good
agreement with the data published in the literature when considering the
pipe ovality and the compression yield strength of the pipe. The results have
shown that such pipes can fulfil the requirements for deep sea application
under high external pressure.
In the case of the thick wall pipe tested, the best correlation with the true
transition temperature (West Jefferson test) in the pipe is found for the full
size pressed notch DWTT specimen according to API as found earlier in the
case of thinner wall. Therefore, this should be the preferred specimen when
determining the transition temperature of heavy wall pipes.

REFERENCES
[1]

M. Grf, H.-G. Hillenbrand, U. Zeislmair, R. Denys

Pipeline Technology, Volume I, p. 389.401,1995

[2]

M. Grf, U. Marewski, G. Vogt

Symposium on Pipeline Research, Houston 30.09.-02.10.1996
Bruno Msgen, Hans Jrgen Kaiser
Auswirkungen des Bauschinger Effektes auf das Bauteilverhalten hochfester
Sthle, Thyssen Technische Berichte, issue 2/84

[3]

[4]

S. Schwaigerer
Festigkeitsberechnung im Dampfkessel-, Behlter- und Rohrleitungsbau
Springer Verlag, Berlin/Heidelberg/New York/Tokyo, 1993

[5]

Vladimir A. Avakov
Equations shorten pipe collapse calculations Gil & Journal, April 10, 1995

[6]

Peter R. Stark, David S. Mc Keehan

Hydrostatic Collapse Research in Support of Oman India Gas Pipeline
27th Annual OTC Houston, Texas, 1-4 May 1995

[7]

G. Junker, F.G. Koch, J. Kgler, W.A. Maxey, A. Peeck, P.A. Peters,

K. Seifert and G.H. Vogt
Transition temperature determination on large diameter
heavy wall high- toughness pipes
3R international 23 (1984), pp. 512-517

[8]

Eiber, R. J.
Fracture Propagation
4th Symposium on Une Pipe Resarch, American Gas Association, 1969

[9]

G. Junker, W.A. Maxey, P.A. Peters and G.H. Vogt

Transition temperature determination on large diameter
high-toughness pipes of grade X 80
3R international 25 (1986), pp. 178-182

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