Experimental and numerical investigations of buckle interaction in subsea pipelines

• New experimental results for propagation buckling, pure bending and buckle interaction in subsea pipelines are presented.
• Finite element model of pipeline is verified against the experimental results.
• Buckle interaction envelopes under transient and steady state conditions are compared and presented.
• A comparison with design standards is made.

Experimental and finite element results for buckle interaction in subsea pipelines are presented in this paper. Experimental results for buckle propagation and pure bending of pipes are presented first followed by buckle interaction results. A finite element model, verified against the experimental results, is used to develop buckle interaction envelopes. The analysis is conducted using both transient and steady state conditions. The results highlight the vulnerability of subsea pipelines to buckle interaction particularly in deep waters.