On the effect of narrow and long corrosion defects on the collapse pressure of pipelines

Internal corrosion in pipelines is often caused by water, sediment, or chemical contaminants present in the multi-phase flow. This normally occurs at the bottom of the pipe and at low points in the pipeline where sediment and water can settle out of the product being transported, therefore creating narrow and long defects. The effect of corrosion defects on the collapse pressure of offshore pipelines was studied through combined small-scale experiments and nonlinear numerical analyses based on the finite element method. After calibrated in view of the experimental results, the model was used to determine the collapse pressure as a function of material and geometric parameters of different pipes and defects. An extensive parametric study using 2-D and 3-D numerical models was carried out encompassing different defect geometries and their interaction with pipe ovalization. This paper reports these results which are subsequently used to develop a simple procedure for estimating the collapse pressure of pipes with narrow defects.