Subsea Pipeline

Engineering

Section 1c

Marine Pipeline Construction

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Engineering

Pipeline Construction

 Laybarge methods construct the pipeline at sea,

from short lengths welded together, and lowered
into place.
 Tow and reel methods construct the pipeline on
shore, and then move the whole pipeline to its
final position.

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Pipeline Construction (cont’d.)

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Pipeline Construction – S-Lay Installation
 When using the S-lay installation method, onboard welded pipe
joints leave the vessel horizontally and are guided off a "stinger" - a
structure on the back of the ship that supports the seagoing pipe
string to control its bend radius.
 Due to its high production rate
and the possibility to install
concrete coated pipe, S-lay is
extremely suitable for pipe
installation in shallow and
intermediate waters. Larger
water depths are equally possible
but require a very long stinger,
turning S-lay into a less practical
and efficient solution.

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Pipeline Construction – J-Lay Installation
J-lay
Pipe stalks with a
length up to 6 joints
are upended and
welded to the
seagoing pipe in a
The ramp angle is chosen near vertical
in such a way ramp.
that it
is in line with the pipe catenary to the seabed.
The J-lay method is very suitable for deepwater
as the pipe leaves the lay system in an almost
vertical position. The pipeline is only bent once
during installation (at the seabed) which is
advantageous for installing pipelines that are
sensitive to fatigue.
Compared to other lay methods, J-lay has a relatively low
production rate due to the limited number of work stations.
The J-lay method is less suitable for shallow waters as this
requires a steep departure angle.
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Pipeline
Construction
(cont’d.)
S- Lay

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Engineering

Pipeline Construction - S-Lay (cont’d.)

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Engineering

Pipeline Construction - S-Lay (cont’d.)

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Engineering

Pipeline Construction - S-Lay (cont’d.)

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Engineering
Pipeline Construction - S-Lay (cont’d.)

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Engineering
Pipeline Construction - S-Lay (cont’d.)

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Pipeline Construction - S-Lay (cont’d.)
Example 1:
Calculate the Lay Rate based on the design considerations
for installing a pipeline using the S-lay method.
The main characteristics of the pipeline are given below:
Water depth: 1500 m
Length : 100 km
Pipe outer diameter (OD): 14 inch (365 mm)
Wall thickness (WT): 25 mm
Design pressure : 400*105 Pa
Specified Minimum Yield Stress : 482 N/mm2
Expected undisturbed production rate : 3.6 km / day using
single joint welding
Expected repair rate : 5 % of all welds
Average repair time : 20 minutes
Pipe joint length : 12 m
Coating : Corrosion protection
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Pipeline Construction - S-Lay (cont’d.)

Answer:

Calculate the lay rate.

The number of welds in one day is: 3600/12 =

300
The number of repairs in one day is:
0.05*300=15
The total time spent for repairs in one day is:
20 min x 15 = 300 min = 5 hours
Total: 3600/(24+5)= 124 m/h = 2980 m/day

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Pipeline Construction - S-Lay (cont’d.)

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Engineering
Pipeline Construction - S-Lay (cont’d.)

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Pipeline Construction - S-Lay (cont’d.)
 Overall safety record was very good for the activity set
involved (one high potential lifting incident during Solitaire
mobilisation, one medical treatment case on the survey
vessel)
 105 km of 22" concrete coated pipe laid in under 18 days
including pull-in and lay down.
 Average lay rate of ~6.9 km/day (or over 4 meters/minute)
 Peak lay rate ~7.8 km over a 24 hour period
 No weather downtime & very minimal mechanical
downtime
 Program completed 11 days ahead of the 30 day plan
(lump sum contract)
 28 kilometres were laid between the live Magnus gas lines
(100 meters apart)
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Pipeline
Construction -
S-Lay (cont’d.)

Pipe Tensioner

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Engineering
Pipeline
Construction
- S-Lay
(cont’d.)

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S-Lay

Advantages of S-lay
 Whole length of barge can be used for operations
at multiple stations (line-up, welding,
radiography, field joint infill, tension)

Disadvantages of S-lay
 In deep water, tension has to be high in deep
water, stinger has to be long

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Lay Barge, S-Lay Method

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Lay Barge J-Lay

Method

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J-Lay Method

 To date, the deepest operating pipelines have

been laid using the J-lay method, where the
pipeline departs the lay vessel in a near-vertical
orientation, and the only bending condition
resulting from installation is near the touchdown
point in the sagbend.

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J-Lay Engineering

Advantages of J-lay
 Tension can be much lower, particularly in deep
water.
 Touchdown point is closer to barge, and spans are
shorter.
 No stinger pipe.
 Less exposed to wave action - barge can lower pipe
and then weather-vane around.

Disadvantages of J-lay
 Welding all carried out at one or two stations.
 inflexible if breakdown occurs.
 not suitable for very shallow water unless ramp can
be rotated into horizontal position.
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J-Lay
Method

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J-Lay Method (cont’d.)

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Reel - Lay

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Reel - Lay
 Long pipe segments are welded, tested and
coated onshore and then spooled onto a large
vertical pipe reel in one continuous length.
 Once the Reel-lay vessel is in position, the pipe is
unspooled, straightened and overboarded as the
vessel moves forward.
 The advantages gained by the high production
rate as well as the controlled welding and
inspection conditions onshore, make Reel-lay an
extremely efficient method for the installation of
pipelines up to 20 inch in all waters. A Reel-lay
vessel requires a spoolbase nearby to reduce
transit time to and from the installation site.
Reel-lay is therefore often combined with other
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Reeling (cont’d.)

 PLUTO (Pipe Line Under The Ocean) England to

France, 1944
 100 km+, two kinds of 3-inch pipe, one steel ERW,
no coating, the other a hollow submarine cable

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Reeling (cont’d.)
 Historically, the technique of laying undersea fluid-carrying
pipelines had its rudimentary beginnings in England in the
1940's in a War-time project known as "Operation Pluto".
 In the summer of 1944, 3-inch nominal bore steel tubes,
electrically flash-welded together, were coiled around
floating drums. One end of the pipe was fixed to a terminal
point; as the floating drums were towed across the English
Channel, the pipe was pulled off the drum. In this manner,
pipeline connections were made between the fuel supply
depots in England and distribution points on the European
continent to support the Allied invasion of Europe.
 PLUTO (Pipe Line Under The Ocean) England to France,
1944
 100 km+, two kinds of 3-inch pipe, one steel ERW, no
coating, the other a hollow submarine cable

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Two Types of Reelships
 Horizontal axis (e.g. Technip Apache, Deep
Blue, DSND Fennica)

 Vertical Axis Reel (e.g. Global Chickasaw,

Hercules)

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Reeling (cont’d.)

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Reeling (cont’d.)

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Pull and Tow Methods

 Pull is from a fixed point, on an opposite shore or
an anchored barge.
 Tow is from a free-floating tug.

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Pull

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Pull

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Pull (cont’d.)

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Tow

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Engineering

Tow (cont’d.)

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Surface Tow

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Engineering

Bottom Tow

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Engineering

Mid-depth Tow

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Engineering

Mechanics of Suspended Pipeline

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Element of Suspended Pipeline

 Geometry described by relationship between
distance along pipe S and inclination y

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Element of Suspended Pipeline

 Mechanics described by end forces and moments
on the element, the weight of the element, and
the resultant hydrostatic force on the element

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Element of Suspended Pipeline
 Element has three
components:
 One component is a force that
acts along the local axis, and is
equal to the local hydrostatic
pressure multiplied by the
cross-section.
 The other component is
horizontal U and
 The third component is vertical
V.
 These forces and moments -
system I, are in equilibrium.

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Element of Water Filling Same Space as

the Pipe Element
These forces and moments - system II, are in
equilibrium

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Element of Suspended Pipe – Force
Equilibrium

 System I is in
equilibrium system II is
in equilibrium
 Therefore the
difference between I
and II must also be in
equilibrium
 Now write down the
equilibrium equations

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Element of Suspended Pipe – Force
Engineering

Equilibrium

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Element of Suspended Pipe – Force
Equilibrium (cont’d.)

 The F term is only significant close to the lift-off

point and close to the touchdown point.
 Over almost all the suspended span the pipe
behaves as a catenary.
 The horizontal component U of the tension
controls the curvature, which is w/U.
 The vertical component V supports the weight.

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Tow Method
 For all pull and tow methods, the pipe has to
have a uniform low weight during the pull.
 For bottom pull and bottom tow, the route has to
be surveyed carefully, and the pipe must have an
abrasion-resistant coating that can stand up to
being dragged across the seabed

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Pipe Installation Stress-Strain Relationship

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Pipe Installation Stress-Strain Relationship
(cont’d.)

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Pipe Installation Stress-Strain Relationship
(cont’d.)

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Pipe Installation Stress-Strain Relationship
(cont’d.)

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Pipe Installation Stress-Strain Relationship
(cont’d.)

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Pipe Installation Stress-Strain Relationship
(cont’d.)

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Quantify Buckle Prevention

 How much wall thickness is needed to prevent

buckling during reeling ?
 Sometimes said: D/t < 20 or 22 not so!
 Larger diameters require a smaller D/t

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Quantify (cont’d.)
 Pipe diameter D, wall thickness t
 Reel diameter b
 Maximum bending strain = D/b
 DnV buckling strain = (t/D) – 0.01
 (taking girth weld factor as 1, and yield/tensile<0.85);
so if geometric factor of safety = f

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Quantify Buckle Prevention (cont’d.)

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Quantify Buckle Prevention (cont’d.)

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Reeling Method (cont’d.)

 Pipe with concrete weight coating cannot be reeled.

 Links choice of construction method to design of
pipeline.
 If stability is a governing factor, requires the steel
thickness to be increased to give the pipeline enough
weight.
 Expensive (particularly for CRA pipe).
 Leads to other difficulties (such as upheaval
buckling).
 Means that anti-corrosion coating has to resist
potential mechanical damage.

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Alternative Flexible Concrete Weight

Coating
 Polymer-modified rubber-like concrete
 More expensive than conventional concrete, but
much cheaper than steel (per kg of submerged
weight)
 Can be applied
 Gives mechanical protection to anti-corrosion
coating

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Reeled Bundles
 Simple pipe-in-pipe systems can be reeled (e.g.
Seahorse and Tarwhine projects).
 Studies have shown that more complex bundles
can also be reeled.
 Possibility of helical bundles (Husham patent
1895).
 Carrier diameter and wall thickness limited by
reeling capacity.

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Reeled Bundles Compared With Towed
Bundles
Reeled
 carrier diameter limited
 submerged weight can be large
 route can be curved.

Towed
 carrier diameter not limited
 submerged weight during tow needs to be small
 final route must be straight.

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End of this
Section

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