Proceedings of the Twenty-third (2013) International Offshore and Polar Engineering www.isope.

org
Anchorage, Alaska, USA, June 30–July 5, 2013
Copyright © 2013 by the International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE)
ISBN 978-1-880653-99–9 (Set); ISSN 1098-6189 (Set)

Helical Submerged Arc Welded Line Pipe Engineered For Strain Based Design
Steffen Zimmermann, Hossein Karbasian
Salzgitter Mannesmann Forschung GmbH
Duisburg, Germany

Franz Martin Knoop

Salzgitter Mannesmann Großrohr GmbH
Salzgitter, Germany

Differential ground movements may have many reasons such as soil

ABSTRACT subsidence, frost heave, thaw settlement and landslides, to name a few.
A phenomenon, which is common to such load scenarios, is that these
The results suggest that helical submerged arc welded line pipe is may evoke significant longitudinal strain, which is very much different
significantly better in terms of buckling capacity than expected on the to bare pressure containment scenarios. It is for this reason that pipe
basis of current design codes. The presence of a helical weld seam was manufacturers are requested to support development and design of safe
not detrimental to the mechanical pipe performance, which is very and reliable energy transportation solutions. To ensure pipeline safety
much in line with the observations made in Zimmerman et al. (2004). and integrity over time ‘Strain Based Design’ may serve as the key to
such complex pipeline applications. In Strain Based Design, it is
KEY WORDS: Helical submerged arc welded line pipe; Strain important that the pipeline is capable of accommodating adequate
Based Design; an-isotropy; full-scale burst test; full-scale bending test. plastic strain along its axial extension. In this context, Salzgitter
Mannesmann Großrohr GmbH, Salzgitter, has made large efforts
NOMENCLATURE towards characterizing the amount of plastic axial strain helical
submerged arc welded (HSAW) line pipe can deliver. In particular,
LIP load introduction plane full-scale tests on HSAW line pipe joints have shown that longitudinal
SMYS specified minimum yield strength strain will depend upon constitutive properties of all three co-ordinate
SUP support directions, see Knoop (2010).
Da outer diameter Helical submerged arc welded (HSAW) line pipe has become
F, G, H … constitutive parameters for modeling an-isotropy an accepted and at the same time very competitive alternative to
Rb maxiumum bending radius longitudinal welded pipe for gas and oil pipelines. In the field of on-
T tensile strength shore pipelines, HSAW line pipe has gained large market shares,
Y yield strength especially in Asia. This is confirmed by numerous projects around
t wall thickness China such as the West-to-East project (Zhiling et al. 2008, Alexanders
n work hardening exponent 2012), the Central-Asia-China project (Shengli 2012) or the
pB burst pressure Kazakhstan-China project (Tolkemit et al. 1988), where large tonnages
t wall thickness of HSAW line pipe were used.
εeff effective strain In this paper, an investigation will be presented, which was
εI, εII, εIII … principal strains guided by the idea that HSAW can be specifically engineered for axial
σI, σII, σIII … principal stresses strain demand. In a first step, an-isotropic properties of HSAW line
pipe were characterized based upon two full-scale burst tests on grade
σeff effective stress
X80 48” pipe joints. In particular, it was possible to identify plastic
flow characteristics of radial direction in addition to circumferential
and axial pipe direction of X80 line pipe. Based upon the status quo
INTRODUCTION identified during the first step of the investigation, an extensive
parametric study was carried out in order to assess most beneficial
With the sustained rise in both oil and gas price to record levels, combinations of mechanical properties in the circumferential, radial
hydrocarbon reserves that were considered too expensive to justify and axial direction in a second step. Finally, in a third step, four full-
exploration only a few years ago are now considered as attractive. scale bending tests, two of which were combined loading tests, were
Fortunately, advances in technologies allow previously uneconomic
carried out on grade X70 and grade X80 36” line pipe joints for
reserves to be accessed (Martin 2006). These “new” reserves tend to be identification of their buckling resistance. To this end, a newly
in regions where difficult ground prevails. That is to say, more and conceived and constructed test rig (Limit State Analyzer ‘LiSA’) was
more pipelines will be prone to large differential ground movements.

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