Effect of External Pitting Corrosion Defects on the Buckling Performance of Deep-Sea Pipelines

In this paper, the effects of external pitting corrosion on the buckling performance of deep-sea pipelines were studied.Ovality-corrosion composite defects were analyzed using the full-scale and small-scale deep-sea pipeline buckling test combined with finite-element numerical simulation analysis.The results showed that under the hydrostatic pressure, the buckling behavior of the deep-sea pipeline with external pitting corrosion defects is mainly affected by the initial ovality of the pipeline.The buckling position appeared at the maximum ovality area, but was not significantly affected by pitting corrosion defects.Further, the effect of pitting on buckling pressure was numerically simulated under the presumption that pitting corrosion was located on the short axis of the initial ovality.Results showed that the pitting corrosion defect had a certain, but limited, influence on the post-buckling morphology of the pipe.Additionally, the buckling pressure of pipe decreased gradually as the pitting scale parameters increased, although the amplitude of the buckling pressure was found to be small. © 2019, Editorial Board of Journal of Tianjin University(Science and Technology). All right reserved.