Comparison study of umbilicals' curvature based on full scale tests and numerical models

Abstract

A full scale test was carried out for a dynamic steel tube umbilical under combination of tensile and bending loads. The purpose of the test was to investigate the behavior of the dynamic bending under complex loading conditions by examining curvature and stress of the steel tubes, either center tube or helical tubes. The full scale test was also modeled by using finite element analysis(FEA) tool to study the behavior of the monitored components including both the center and helical tubes. This paper first presents both the scheme of the full scale test and test methodology and procedure. An algorithm is developed to convert the measured data in terms of curvature to be consistent with the simulated results by FEA. Then the measured curvature are compared with the simulated curvature for both the center and helical tubes. Good correlation is found for steel tubes under different load combinations. Finally, potential uncertainties in measured data are removed by carrying out a set of sensitivity study