Parametric Study of Integral Buckle Arrestors Design of Submarine Pipeline System in Masela Block

A pipe collapse or local buckling is one of catastrophic failures that might be occurred in a submarine pipeline system due to a high external hydrostatic pressure. A preliminary survey of pipeline on the selected route shows that the pipeline will pass through a 5,309 ft of depth. Buckle arrestors are necessary to be installed along a critical location of pipeline to prevent buckle propagation and catastrophic failure. The purposes of this study was to examine the effect of geometry variation, such as (i) pipe thickness, (ii) ratio of buckle arrestor thickness to pipe thickness, (iii) buckle arrestor length, and (iv) pipe diameter, of the integral buckle arrestor system to a buckling load factor. The study was conducted by numerical simulations using ANSYS T. Nominal Pipe Sizes of 28", 30" and 32" with API 5L grade X60 materials were used in the simulation. The simulation was validated using experimental data of previous study and DNV-OS-F101. Based on this study, the buckle load factor was significantly influenced by the pipe thickness and the pipe diameter. The other two factors generate a slight change on the buckle load factor. For selected NPS of 28" with 1.2" thickness of pipeline, we hypothesize that the integral buckle arrestor with 30" length and 3.6" thickness can be used to prevent buckling propagation. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.