Influence of Lined Pipe Fabrication on Liner Wrinkling

Abstract An economical method to protect offshore pipelines against corrosive ingredients of hydrocarbons is a double-walled (also called “lined” or “bi-metallic”) pipe, in which a thick-walled low-alloy carbon steel (“outer pipe”) is lined internally with a thin layer (“liner pipe”) from a corrosion resistant alloy material. During the deep-water installation, a lined pipe is subjected to severe plastic loading, which may result in detachment of the liner pipe from the outer pipe forming short-wave wrinkles, followed by local buckling. In the current study, alternative lined pipe manufacturing processes are investigated, including elastic, plastic hydraulic and thermo-hydraulic expansion of the outer pipe, for different initial gaps between the two pipes. The problem is solved numerically, accounting for geometric non-linearities, local buckling phenomena and elastic-plastic material behaviour for both the liner and outer pipe. Two types of numerical models are developed, a quasi-two-dimensional model, examining the mechanical bonding between the pipes, and a three-dimensional model, repeating the manufacturing process and investigating its effect on the mechanical behaviour of a lined pipe subjected to monotonic bending. In addition, the influence of initial geometric imperfections on liner pipe buckling is investigated, showing the imperfection sensitivity of the lined pipe bending behaviour, for each fabrication process.