Mechanical modeling of the polymeric coating on a subsea pipeline

Abstract

Offshore pipelines may be exposed to a range of extreme loading situations during operation on the seabed such as impact by trawl gear or anchors. While not primarily being designed for it, thermal insulating polymeric coatings are experienced to provide beneficial contributions to the structural integrity of subsea pipeline designs. In recent editions, the prevailing standards and design guidelines are allowing for the inclusion of external coating products in the mechanical design evaluation. This secondary functionality of insulating coatings presents a great potential in terms of more optimized pipeline designs. However, due to the lack of reliable and versatile mechanical models, any beneficial effects from these complex polymeric insulating coatings are often omitted in simulations. This work presents a finite element based approach for assessing the mechanical response of polymeric coatings on offshore pipelines with different porous structures imaged using X-ray micro computed tomography. The modeling approach is also compared with experimental results.