Proceedings of the ASME 2014 33rd International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering
OMAE2014
June 8-13, 2014, San Francisco, California, USA
A MULTI-PURPOSE FINITE ELEMENT MODEL FOR FLEXIBLE RISERS STUDIES
Fabien CALEYRON, Martin GUITON,
Jean-Marc LEROY, Timothee PERDRIZET
IFP Energies nouvelles
Solaize, France
ABSTRACT
The paper focuses on a Finite Element (FE) model
developed at IFPEN, denominated 3D-Periodic, which is
dedicated to flexible riser studies. It takes full advantage of the
geometric and loading periodicities to reduce the model length
and the CPU cost. The model is developed in a commercial FE
software with dedicated pre- and post-treatment packages. The
model can represent standard cyclic bending with internal
pressure and axial tension as well as external pressures load
cases to investigate the risk of lateral buckling of tensile armors
or of pipe collapse.
INTRODUCTION
High pressure flexible risers are commonly used in offshore
oil and gas production for over 35 years. They provide
compliant and corrosion resistant solutions, even in the world's
harshest and deepest offshore environments.
The accurate and reliable modeling of offshore flexible risers
behavior is still a challenge because of:
• their complex structure (thermoplastic sheaths, various
steel helically wrapped layers, anti-wear tapes, anti-buckling
tapes),
• the large number of potential contacts (friction and
stick/slip conditions between components),
• the different scales of the problem (typically from few
meters for helical layers pitches to few kilometers for the
flexible pipe length), historically leading to use both global and
local models,
• the variable nature of the loads along the pipe (tension,
curvature, internal and external pressures, torsion),
OMAE2014-23250
David CHARLIAC, Pascal ESTRIER,
Laurent PAUMIER
Technip - Flexi France
Le Trait, France
• the interactions with environment (sea swell, connection
with rig or FPSO, stiffener, etc.).
Three types of models are available to study the complete armor
layers, mainly developed to represent bending of risers with
standard internal pressure and axial tension loadings:
• full length models [1,2,3,4,5] in which a few
meters long pipes with end-fittings boundary
conditions are considered. These models can
account for non-uniform curvatures along the pipe
and contacts with outer structures (stiffener,
bellmouth, soil), but result in large computing
times;
• one armor pitch length models [6], with periodic
boundary conditions. Each armor wire of a given
layer has a specific behavior, but periodic
conditions impose that the curvature of the bent
pipe is constant at a given time;
• reduced length models, assuming that all armors
of a given layer have the same behavior, with
periodic conditions on one pitch, and constant
curvature of the pipe at a given time. With the
previous assumptions, IFPEN developed a
software called LIFE which is based on analytical
developments and on finite differences integration
schemes [7].
The 3D-Periodic model presented in this paper is a local FE
model belonging to the latter type of models described above.
From given tensions and curvatures variations of the pipe, it
computes slips, stresses and curvatures in armor layers. It was
successfully compared to LIFE in [1] and is used as a R&D tool
1 Copyright © 2014 by ASME
to verify the conservatism of the design tools available in A1 ○ ○
S1
α
Technip group [7,8]. B2 S2
A2 ○ ○ ○
B3 S3
The following relevant features have been included in the 3D- A3 ○ ○ ○
2πa
Periodic model: A4 ○ ○
B4
○
S4

• axial compression associated with external B5 S5

A5 ○ ○ ○
pressure (reverse end-cap effect),
• armor annulus status: flooded or non-flooded,
B1
A1 ○ ○ ○
depending on the sealing of the external sheath, 2πa 2πa S1

n f tan α tan α
• anti-buckling tapes resistance,
• elasto-plastic material behavior of armors, Figure 1: illustration of periodicity: initial helix wire
S'1
• contact pressures or normal gaps between layers A'1
○ ○
A'2
of the pipe and associated friction loads, ○ ○ B'2 ○ S'2

• lateral contacts between armor wires of a layer, A'3 ○ ○ B' ○ S'3

3
that requires the introduction of all wires in the
model. A'4
○ ○ B'4 ○ S'4

The model and its evolutions are first explained. Then, different A'5○ ○ B'5 ○ S'5
applications are presented such as steel armor stress assessment, A'1 ○ ○ ○
B'1 S'1
lateral buckling and collapse studies. 2πa
n f tan α

Figure 2: illustration of periodicity: deformed helix

3D-PERIODIC MODEL
Description of the model
The 3D-Periodic model has been developed to represent a
flexible pipe length where periodicity can be assumed for both
the geometry and the loadings. Assuming that all the wires of an
armor layer have the same behavior, it is then possible to reduce
the model to a length l equal to the pitch of the layer p divided
by the number of wires nf:
p 2π a
l= = (1)
nf n f tan α
where a and α are the radius and initial laying angle of a helical
layer, respectively. It is illustrated on Figure 1 where a
simplified straight pipe is developed, with a layer composed of
5 wires. Using appropriate periodicity conditions between
couples of points ( Ai , Bi ) located on the same initial generatrix,
the dotted segments represent then the solid line (S1S1), which is
a wire on a pitch.
A similar figure can be drawn on a deformed cylinder, see
Figure 2 where points ( Ai' , Bi' ) are the final positions of points
( Ai , Bi ) . In this case, the couple of points located on the same
generatrix have the same displacements relatively to the
deformed surface.
wire
For numerical reasons described in a later section, the model is
extended symmetrically to a length 2l.
The 3D-Periodic model can be summed up in:
• a FE discretization on a length 2l of the various layers
constituting the structure,
• periodicity conditions between couple of points of
each layer initially on the same generatrix,
• a central beam used to apply uniform curvature along
the model as well as axial and torsional loading,
• a contact model between the layers.
Each one of the above points is detailed in the subsequent
sections.
Periodicity conditions
Periodicity conditions are applied between the couples of
nodes ( Ai , Bi ) of each layer, located on the same initial
generatrix of the model. They involve a third node, denoted C ,
located on the axis of the flexible model and initially in the
same section as Bi , see Figure 3. The section that contains the
node Ai is fixed as it is assumed to be the plane of symmetry of
the model. Ai' , Bi' and C ' are the deformed positions of Ai , Bi
and C .

2 Copyright © 2014 by ASME

  0 −δθC3 δθ C2 
 
δθˆC =  δθC3 0 −δθC1  (8)
 −δθC2 δθ 1
0 
 C

where δθC1 , δθC2 , δθC3 are the components of the linearized

rotation fields of node C .

Finite element discretization

The various layers of the structure are discretized with FE
as follow:
• an external equivalent kernel composed of a layer of
Figure 3: example of nodes involved in periodicity quadrilateral shell elements sharing nodes with
(a) initial configuration (b) deformed configuration circumferential embedded beam elements. They
represent respectively the external sheaths and the anti-
Degrees of freedom (dof) of nodes Ai , Bi and C are linked buckling tapes. The mechanical properties of the shell
and beam elements are computed so that their stiffness
through periodicity conditions which are written as follow for is equal to the one of the various sheaths and anti-
translational dof: buckling tapes located above the armor layers;
R (φ ) .Bis Bi' = Ais Ai' • armor layers discretized with 8-nodes bricks. Two or 4
t C
(2)
s s armor layers can be included in the model;
where A and B are fictitious nodes corresponding to the
i i • anti–wear tapes modeled as initial cylinders with 8-
deformed positions of points Ai and Bi if they were stuck on nodes bricks;
• an internal equivalent kernel composed of a layer of
the deformed cylinder. R
t
(φ )
C
and φ C
are respectively the quadrilateral shell elements sharing nodes with
transposed of the rotation matrix and the rotation vector at circumferential embedded beam elements. They
point C . Considering that the section of point Ai is fixed, i.e. represent respectively internal sheaths and carcass,
pressure vault and spirals whose laying angles are
Ais = Ai , and the following relationship: close to 90°. The mechanical properties of the shell

( )
Bis Bi' = Bis C ' + C ' Bi' = R φ C .Bi C + C ' Bi' (3)
and beam elements are computed so that their stiffness
is equal to the one of the various sheaths and steel
equation (2) can be written: layers situated under the armor layers. Optionally, the
C ' Bi' = R φ ( ) .(CB + A A )
C
i i i
'
(4)
internal kernel can be modeled as a multi-layer kernel
for collapse applications. In this case, all the layers are
In the case of shell and beam FE, periodicity conditions for explicitly represented, see section “Effect of traction
rotational dof are written: on the collapse of flexible pipes” for details.
R φ ( ) = R (φ ) .R (φ )
Bi C Ai
(5) Each kernel and anti–wear layer have 8 elements in the flexible
Equations (4) and (5) are then linearized in order to compute axis direction and 200 elements in the circumferential direction.
the tangent stiffness matrix of the Newton algorithm. Linearized Nine circumferential beams are embedded in each kernel. Each
equations are respectively. armor wire is meshed with 8 elements in the section and 2
δ u B − δ uC = δθˆC .R (φ C ) .(CBi + Ai Ai' ) + R (φ C ) .δ u A
elements in the tangential direction of the armor. All the
i i
(6) elements are linear and, when available, reduced integration

δθ B = δθC + R (φ C ) .δθ A
with Hourglass control is used. Figure 4 shows a typical mesh
(7) of a 3D-Periodic model for a 2 armor layers flexible pipe.
i i

where δ u A , δ u B , δ uC , δθ A , δθ B , δθC
i i i i
are the linearized

displacements and rotation fields of nodes Ai , Bi and C

respectively, and δθˆC is the skew-symmetric matrix of node C
defined as:

3 Copyright © 2014 by ASME


Figure 4: typical mesh of a 2 armor layers 3D-Periodic
model
Central beam and load application
The full set of nodes Ci , located on the axis of the flexible
and used in the periodicity conditions, constitute a central beam
without mechanical properties, see Figure 5. One of these
nodes, denoted M, is attributed the role of master while other
nodes Ci are slaves. Loadings are applied at master node M :
• the curvature of the flexible is imposed through a
rotation angle φ,
• the axial load of the flexible is imposed through a
follower force T in the pipe axis,
• the torsion is imposed through a follower moment
around the axis of the structure.
The motion of the slave nodes is imposed through relations
between their dof and that of M, such that the curvature of the
central beam is spatially constant, while axial displacement and
torsion angle are linearly distributed along the flexible axis.
Figure 5: kinematic conditions of the central beam and load
application.
Internal and external pressure loadings can also be applied to
the model through pressures exerted on the internal or external
kernels, with suitable radius correction.
Contact resolution
All contacts interactions between the model components
are considered. It allows, in particular, lateral contacts between
adjacent armor wires during cyclic bending tests. Each pair of
surfaces potentially in contact are treated with a node-to-surface
approach. The slave contact nodes are the nodes Ai located in
the plane of symmetry of the model. Other nodes of the layers
have their dof eliminated by the periodicity conditions and
should not be slaves in the contact algorithm. Master surfaces
correspond to the whole surface of the different layers, which
allows each slave contact node to find a lower, upper or lateral
surface to correctly solve the contact conditions. This is the
reason why the model is extended symmetrically to a length 2l.
A penalty algorithm is chosen for numerical efficiency to
impose normal and tangential contact conditions. Penalty
stiffness parameters are chosen optimally to obtain low CPU
cost and good contact solution accuracy.
Implementation of the model
The model is implemented within the commercial FE
software Abaqus, using an implicit scheme (Abaqus Standard
module). Abaqus is a reference code for the resolution of highly
non-linear problems including contacts. The use of this
commercial code enables to benefit from a complete
environment that includes capabilities for creating models,
submitting and monitoring jobs, and evaluating results with
post-processing functionalities. Fully automated pre- and post-
processing of the 3D-Periodic model are implemented using
Python scripts. Periodicity conditions are introduced in the
model through a Fortran User Subroutine.
ELEMENTS OF ARMOR KINEMATICS
Let us first recall some basic principles from [9] on the
kinematics of helically wounded wires. In the case of internal
pressure loading, it is assumed that they stay on the surface of a
tore representing the inner layers of the flexible riser. Figure 6
represents the mobile basis (t, N, B) of a wire, composed
respectively of the vector tangent to the wire, the inner normal
to the tore, and the bi-normal. Let us define also on the same
figure, a circumferential angle θ starting at the outer-arc.
Note that during bending, the normal n to the wire may not
coincide with N, except when the wire follows the geodesic
curve. The wire kinematics is described by the displacement
with respect to the reference tore, whose components in the
basis are ∆ut, ∆uN and ∆uB. The last component is called
transverse displacement. Similarly the curvature components
are denoted Ct, CN and CB.
4 Copyright © 2014 by ASME

Figure 6 : Darboux-Ribaucour wire basis.
We consider the following particular geometric cases which will
be used as references for the deformed wire :
• geodesic curve with a curvature along N and
corresponding to the straightest path along the tore,
• iso-meridian curve with displacements relative to the
reference tore along the circumference,
• transposed curve, with no transverse displacement.
For sake of illustration, Figure 7 shows an example of the
transverse displacement vs. θ, for these characteristic curves.
The global amplitude depends on the pipe properties and on
pipe curvature, but the sinusoidal shapes and sign of
displacement are invariant properties.
Figure 7 : ∆uB along circumference for different curves.
From Figure 6 and Figure 7, it follows that during bending, an
evolution towards the geodesic or towards the iso-meridian,
implies a migration towards the inner-arc, or the outer-arc,
respectively.
EXAMPLES OF APPLICATIONS
Cycling bending of flexible pipes with internal
pressure in contact with a bend stiffener
The example of this section is devoted to the cyclic
bending of a part of flexible riser close to the surface
connection where high tension combined to bending can lead to
fatigue damage of the steel armor wires. To limit bending loads,
the riser is generally endowed with a bend limitation apparatus.
We consider here the case of a bend stiffener which is a
polymer cone surrounding the flexible riser. Technip has
conducted an experiment test including 7 asymmetrical bending
cycles between a low and a high angles. The test rig is
illustrated in Figure 8.
During this test, both internal and external armor wires have
been instrumented with strain gages from which stress
variations are measured.
Because of the boundary conditions and the bend stiffener
interaction, the bending curvature of the riser is highly variable
along its length, which violates a fundamental assumption of the
3D-Periodic model. To quantify the error introduced, we have
performed 3D-Periodic simulations at the 7 meridian sections
where the strain gages are located, which are regularly
distributed along the length, between the top-end extremity of
the riser and the bottom-end of the stiffener, see Figure 8. For
each section location, the curvature of the riser central axis is
given by a numerical model, and then imposed as the constant
curvature of the 3D-Periodic model.
Figure 8 : test rig imposing tension, internal pressure and
bending through a swinging table (left part); locations of
strain gage sections (right part).
5 Copyright © 2014 by ASME
 by a hysteresis which is related to frictional slips. The
accordance of the model to the experiment strongly depends on
µ for the maximum amplitude and ∆ue for the steep curve
slopes. For this example, µ and ∆ue were set respectively to 0.15
and 1e-5 m as these values were calibrated from previous tests
(e.g. [7]).

The model is in relative good accordance for the external

armors, despite some significant gaps at few gages, for example
at the second and third rows from the top. It corresponds to the
transition between the rigid and the deformable parts of the
stiffener.

By contrast, the amplitude of the numerical stress curves for the

internal armors is overestimated compared to the experiment. It
can be explained with a full length model simulation, as
described in [1,2], that gives much better correlation with
presented test results. The full length model takes into account
pipe curvature variations, boundary conditions and stiffener
interaction which are disregarded by the 3D-Periodic model.
These effects reduce the sliding length of the internal armor
wires and hence the amplitude of the tangential stress during the
hysteretic cycle when compared to the 3D-Periodic result.

To conclude, this example illustrates the capacity of the 3D-

Periodic model to approximate even such a complex cyclic
bending with non-constant curvature. The external armor wires
keep a quite homogeneous frictional status. For the internal
armors, the overestimation of the wire length which is sliding
results in a gap with the experiment, but in the conservative
sense. Of course, such discrepancy could be reduced by
Figure 9 : tangential stress difference to the mean vs employing a more accurate, but more computing time
bending angle during the last cycle. 3D-Periodic (blue expensive, 3D full length model [1,2,3,4,5]. For this example,
dashed) and experiment (red), external armors. the 3D-Periodic model is two hundred time faster than the 3D
full length model described in [1,2], to compute all presented
Figure 9 and Figure 10 represent the difference between σt and results. The total number of variables is about 6 million for the
its mean value, vs. the bending angle of the swinging table, 3D full length model and is reduced to about 100 000 for the
during the last cycle, within the external and internal armors 3D-Periodic model.
respectively. All vertical axes are scaled according to the
maximum value over the gages of the layer. Each horizontal
axis ranges from the left to the right, according to the minimum
and maximum bending angles respectively. Each picture
corresponds to a gage located by a row for the meridian section,
in the same order as in Figure 8, and a column for the
circumferential location being, from the left to the right, the
outer-arc (θ=0), the neutral fibers (θ=π/2), and the inner-arc
(θ=π).

Friction on all interfaces is described by the same Coulomb

model, regularized with an elastic domain. This model is thus
defined by a friction coefficient µ and a maximum elastic slip
∆ue. As classically expected for a bending test, the amplitude of
the cycle is very small at the neutral fibers, compared to that at
the outer and inner arcs. At these locations, the cycle is marked

6 Copyright © 2014 by ASME


Figure 10 : same as Figure 9 for internal armors.
Plastic lateral buckling of wide steel armor wires with
water-flooded annulus
Lateral Buckling (LB) is due to the reverse end-cap
compression induced by high external pressure. It has been
identified since PETROBRAS encountered a pipe failure at
about 1700 m of water depth in 1997. Because of the
complexity of this failure mechanism, several campaigns of in-
situ experiments (DIP tests) and with hyperbaric chambers have
been realized, trying to reproduce LB failure of flexible pipes,
see [10,11,12].
Among the conclusions of these campaigns, it has been
established that water-flooded annulus promotes LB, because of
less important inter-layer frictional resistances, and that internal
wires are more exposed to this mechanism. With these
conditions and without bending, the armor wires are detached
from the inner layers, and are pressed against the outer layers.
The principles and notations introduced in the section
“Elements of armor kinematics” can be used in this section by
replacing the inner layers by the outer layers for the reference
tore. The post-mortem examination put in evidence two main
pattern for the armors. The first is characterized by lenses of
wires brought together and cannot be captured with the 3D-
Periodic model. The second pattern is illustrated on Figure 11
and is characterized by a change in helix angle with a low angle
to the outer-arc generatrix. The wires are migrating
transversally towards the outer-arc, meaning they go away from
the geodesic. Actually, they can move beyond the iso-meridian
curve.
Figure 11 : example of LB armor failure, from [11]. The line
corresponds to the outer-arc generatrix.
The triggering of this mechanism is generally interpreted as an
unstable bifurcation of armor wires equilibrium under
compression. However, it has to be clearly distinguished from
the configuration which is responsible for the ruin of the pipe,
because they may not coincide, as demonstrated in this section.
Considering the first part of Figure 7, for θ in [0,π], we will
determine the triggering of the bifurcation by a change of sign
in ∆uB from positive to negative.
Since the experimental campaigns, several numerical models
have been developed to simulate LB, either with FEM (e.g.
[12,13]) or semi-analytical approaches ([13,14,15,16]). A
common point between these models is that they neglect direct
interactions between the adjacent amour wires composing a
layer of the pipe, either because they consider only one armor
wire, or because the wires interact only by common boundary
conditions at the extremities of the pipe. This limitation may be
questionable since, as observed in experiments [10,11], the
lateral contacts between the wires play a key role in LB
mechanism.
It is proposed here to investigate with 3D-Periodic
simulations the role of these lateral contacts for the case of wide
steel armor wires which are suspected, from experiments
observations, to ruin with plasticity.
The results presented were obtained by setting friction
coefficient µ to a very small value, in order to accelerate the
stabilization of the bending cycles, marked by the convergence
of the CB and ∆uB curves. It has been verified that increasing µ
does change significantly the mechanical state of the external
armors (that are less stressed when µ is increased), but not that
of internal armors, which are the major pipe components to be
designed against LB. The steel armor constitutive law is elasto-
plasticity with a Von Mises criterion.
7 Copyright © 2014 by ASME
 Let us start by describing the key principles of the
mechanism on a representative example simulated at various
external pressure Pext. The armors width over thickness ratio is
about 6.6, and the initial helix angle is 30.0°. Figure 12 displays A
the evolution of the maximum ∆uB for θ in [0,π] vs. Pext. As
discussed above, the triggering of the bifurcation is located
between the third and the fourth point, starting from the left.
The instability is marked by a rapid decrease until Pext=0.5, at B
which the evolution is stabilized. Finally, plasticity begins at a
pressure between Pext =1 and the next point to the right. C

For sake of illustration we focus now on three pressure states,

A, B, C, before the bifurcation, after the stabilization and after
the beginning of plasticity, respectively. Figure 13 and Figure
14 compare the circumferential distribution of the normalized
lateral gap and of CB, respectively, at the three pressure states.
The normalizations are arbitrary but do not change the Figure 12: Maximum of internal armor ∆uB for θ in [0,ππ] vs.
discussion here after. Pext. Both axes are normalized by the values at Pext
marking the onset of plasticity.
The bifurcation is marked by the inversion of the lateral gap
profile between A and B. At stage B, a lateral contact takes
place at the outer-arc. This feature is essential because it
prevents the continuation of the transverse migration towards
the outer-arc and it is responsible for the stabilization of the
previous bifurcation. This mechanism also stops the
amplification of CΒ according to a quite unchanged
circumferential distribution shape, with extrema located at the
neutral fibers.

Comparing states B and C, the lateral contact spreads over a

larger part of the wire length, from the outer-arc to the neutral
fiber. Also, the transverse curvature keeps on developing but
with a more localized distribution whose extrema are shifted
between the neutral fiber and the inner-arc.
Figure 13 : lateral gap of internal armors vs. θ. Negative
This amplification of CB induces stresses triggering plasticity of values means interpenetration.
the wide steel armors. To investigate the idea that such scenario
leading to plasticity can explain wide armor LB failures, Figure
15 compares, for several Technip experiments with varying
structural parameters, the 3D-Periodic estimates of the pressure
threshold for plasticity and the experimental critical pressures.
This figure include error bars due to pressure sampling only.
Despite the fundamental assumptions of the 3D-Periodic model,
the numerical and the experiment are in relative good
agreement.

Figure 14 : CB of internal armors vs. θ.

8 Copyright © 2014 by ASME


Figure 15 : comparison of numerical estimates of LB
plasticity pressure vs. experimental critical pressure. Y-axis
is normalized by the maximum value and top thin bars
indicate uncertainty range.
Effect of traction on the collapse of flexible pipes
Most of the FE models used for collapse studies focus
exclusively on the modeling of the inner kernel. Carcass and
pressure vault are modeled either with their actual sections, e.g.
[17,18], or through equivalent layers, e.g. [19,20]. The
advantage of the 3D-Periodic multi-layers model presented in
this section is to represent accurately both the internal layers,
the armors and the external layers of the flexible. It permits for
instance to study accurately the influence of the armor layers on
the collapse during the bending or the traction of the structure,
as described in this section. As a consequence, the 3D-Periodic
multi-layers model can constitute a useful R&D complementary
model to the analytical design model presented in [8].
The study of the collapse of flexible pipes under external
pressure requires the 3D-Periodic model to be enhanced in
order to take into account:
• the various layers of the internal kernel (carcass,
vaults, sheaths),
• an initial defect that will initiate the collapse failure.
As presented in the finite element discretization section, the
various layers that constitute the inner kernel of the flexible can
be modeled individually through structural shells. Contrary to
the equivalent kernel which is placed right below the inner
armor layer, the layers of the detailed kernel are modeled at
their effective radius. It is fundamental to obtain accurate
collapse pressures. In the case of a carcass or a vault, the
complex geometrical section of the layer is not explicitly
represented. It would lead to high CPU cost calculations (large
numbers of dof, contacts between spires) whereas local stress
state in the carcass is not of interest here. As a consequence,
they are simplified into equivalent structural shells with
rectangular section, see [17,21,22] for similar approaches. The
calculation of the equivalent parameters is based on the
conservation of the following properties:
• bending stiffness per unit length (EI/p)
• axial stiffness per unit length (EA/p)
• yield load in compression per unit length (σ0A/p)
• amplitude of the hardening per unit length (H/p)
where I, A and p are respectively the bending inertia, area and
pitch of the layer. E, σ0 and H are the Young modulus, initial
yield stress and hardening amplitude of the material.
The properties of the equivalent shell are then given by:
EA A 12 I
E* = e* =
p 12 I A
(9)
σ0A A HA A
σ 0* = H* =
p 12 I p 12 I
where E*, e*, σ 0* and H* are respectively the Young modulus,
thickness, initial yield stress and hardening amplitude of the
equivalent layer. Lemaitre-Chaboche [23] non-linear kinematic
hardening model is used for plasticity with Von-Mises criterion.
For a monotonic uniaxial loading, the yield stress can be written
as:
(1 − e )
C − γε p
σ y = σ0 + (10)
γ
where εp is the equivalent plastic strain, and C and γ are two
parameters giving the amplitude of the hardening:
C
H= (11)
γ
The axial stiffness of carcasses and vaults can be neglected
because their laying angle is close to 90°. It allows the previous
equivalent parameters to be used within a transversely isotropic
model, in which the direction parallel to the flexible axis has
negligible properties, and the plane of isotropy has the above
calculated properties. Coupling Poisson coefficients between
the plane of isotropy and the direction orthogonal to it are set to
zero in order to obtain fully uncoupled material behavior in
those two directions.
Finally, an initial defect is introduced in the model through an
ovalization which is applied uniformly on all the layers of the
structure.
The flexible used to illustrate the capabilities of the model is a
10'' rough bore with a laying angle of 55° and no pressure
armor. It is considered with water flooded annulus. Two
specimens of this TECHNIP structure have been tested at
IFPEN laboratory. They have been subjected to various
traction-pressure loading paths until collapse is observed. Some
results are given on Figure 16:
9 Copyright © 2014 by ASME
 • traction-pressure loading paths for which no collapse
has been observed are represented in green,
• two collapses have been observed and are represented
with red dots. One collapse is obtained with no traction
applied on the structure and one collapse is obtained in
the high tractions zone.
Results presented on Figure 16 are normalized regarding the
structure ultimate pull and the experimental collapse pressure at
T=0.
Figure 16: Comparison of collapse pressures: experimental
tests and simulations
In the 3D-Periodic model, the flexible is first submitted to the
required traction, then to the external pressure and associated
reverse end-cap effect. Resulting collapse pressures are
represented on Figure 16 with the red curve. The black curve
shows the limit between the zone where the flexible is
successively in tension and compression because of the reverse
end-cap effect (low tractions zone) and the zone where the
structure is always in tension (high tractions zone), i.e. where
the reverse end-cap effect is never greater than the applied
traction load.
The curve obtained by numerical simulations shows a slight
increase followed by a slight decrease of the collapse pressure
with increasing tractions in the low tractions zone. In the high
tractions zone, a noticeable increase of the collapse pressure
with the traction is observed. As a consequence, one can
distinguish two different behaviors:
• in the low tractions zone, the structure is first in
tension because of the applied traction load. It
improves the confinement of the carcass by the armor
layers and so its resistance to external pressure. The
increasing reverse end-cap effect produces then a
compression state in the structure which makes the
armor layers and the anti-buckling tapes inflate. A
clearance appears between the carcass and armors at
6h and 12h, according to the initial ovalization, see
Figure 17. In most cases, the contact persists at 3h and
9h which allows the carcass to keep a level of
confinement. For medium range tension, T=2/7 and
T=3/7, a decrease of confinement occurs when the
ovalization of the carcass is more important, which
leads to a quick collapse of the structure, see the
decrease observed on Figure 16.
(a) (b)
Figure 17: deformed states x30:
(a) tension (b) compression for T=2.0
• in the high tractions zone, the compression due to the
reverse end-cap effect never compensates the traction
applied to the structure. As a consequence, armor
layers are always in contact with the inner kernel
which increases the confinement and the resistance to
collapse. For very high tensions, it could be expected
that the negative effect of the additional compression
applied by the armors on the kernel exceeds the
positive effect of the confinement. However, this is not
the case for the structure studied here as no decrease of
the collapse resistance is observed for very high
tensions.
Finally, results show a good agreement between experimental
tests and numerical results. Differences are about 10% of the
collapse pressure and can be explained by the various numerical
and experimental uncertainties (dispersion of the results, initial
defect, friction, etc.) to which the collapse is sensitive. Both
numerical and experimental results show a positive effect of the
traction on the resistance of the flexible to external pressure. It
is explained by a better confinement of the carcass by the armor
layers when subjected to tension.
CONCLUSION
A R&D numerical tool, denominated 3D-Periodic model, has
been presented in this paper. It is dedicated to the study of the
local mechanical behavior of flexible pipes, and in particular
that of the tensile armor wires. The model takes advantage of
the structure periodicity in order to reduce the cost of the
simulations. It assumes that all the wires behave similarly but
can take into account lateral contacts between adjacent wires.
Despite these fundamental assumptions, the applications
presented in the paper on cyclic bending, lateral buckling and
collapse demonstrate the versatility of the model and its ability
to reproduce experimental observations of complex
10 Copyright © 2014 by ASME
mechanisms. These applications also show that the 3D-Periodic
model can greatly facilitate the understanding of engineering
design on some failure mechanisms which are not yet clearly
understood.
The cyclic bending example shows that the fatigue damage of
the armors are strongly related to the portion of the wires that
are in a sliding state. The armor lateral buckling example
emphasizes the key role of lateral contacts between adjacent
wires which stabilize the initial transverse displacement
instability. Finally, the collapse example shows that the
confinement of the internal kernel by the armor layers during
traction increases the resistance of the flexible pipe to external
pressure. However, this mechanism competes with the
compression due to the reverse end-cap effect.
As a conclusion, the 3D-Periodic model is a R&D tool which
can be used for a better understanding of mechanical
phenomena responsible for the flexible pipes failure. It allows
continuous improvements of Technip design tools in various
domains such as fatigue analysis [7], lateral buckling and
collapse [8].
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