Bending-induced local buckling during offshore installation of multi-layered FRP pipelines

Abstract

In the last two decades FRP pipelines have attracted the attention of the oil industry because of their high strength, excellent fatigue performance and low specific weight. On the other hand, the final cost of installation of FRP pipelines is comparable to the cost of carbon steel ones. Therefore, their implementation in offshore applications seems to be advantageous. During offshore installation, the curvatures of the pipes during the S-lay or J-lay installation processes cause high bending stresses and risk for bending-induced local buckling. Since the pipe wall is multi-layered and the laminae are anisotropic, the calculation of critical bending moments is difficult. In the present work, an analytical solution of critical bending moments for bending-induced local buckling is provided. The proposed method uses the classical lamination theory of multi-layered anisotropic materials and Flügge's assumption for local buckling analysis of pipelines. Results for E-Glass fiber reinforced polymeric pipelines are provided and discussed.