Modeling and Analysis of a Free Spanning Pipeline With Randomly Distributed Corrosion

Abstract

Some corrosion defects will appear outside the aged submarine pipelines due to the corrosive sea environment. These defects can depress the strength and integration of the pipeline systems. This paper establishes a novel model using finite element method to describe the corroded pipelines with randomly distributed corrosion defects according to the probability function. Several free spanning pipelines models with random corrosion of different distributed parameters (averaged value and variance) are presented. Then the displacement and stress distribution of the pipelines are calculated subject to external fluid forces. The wet modes are calculated subsequently. At last the effects of the characteristic parameters of corrosion defects are discussed by analyzing the present results. Some conclusion may be useful for perceiving the randomly distributed corrosion how to affect the pipelines operation status.