Study on the contact behavior of pipe and rollers in deep S-lay

The present paper develops a refined finite element model with the framework of ABAQUS, which considers the complex surface contact behaviors in the overbend section. The features of the contact state of different rollers within one roller box are discussed, and the resultant support forces from each roller box are calculated and compared with the commercial design code. The overbend strain level of five S-lay cases is investigated and the pipelaying safety is checked by DNV rules. The simulation results show that the proposed model can provide more accurate and reasonable predictions on roller forces and pipe strain distribution for deepwater S-lay design.