I Pipeline Engineering
Crondall Energy's pipeline engineering services cover all aspects of this wide-ranging multi-disciplinary subject, from basic pipe sizing and material selection through to complex structural analysis and pipeline displacement mitigation measures. Our engineers are world leaders in many aspects of pipeline engineering, including elastic-plastic analysis of pipeline installation, HPHT pipelines and the challenging design issues associated with lateral buckling and pipeline walking.
Key Services:
I Pipeline structural assessments
The structural design of the global pipeline response is complex and not well understood. Crondall Energy engineers are experts in the analysis of global pipeline behaviour. Our analysis techniques draw on many years of experience of monitoring pipelines in operation and from investigation into failures around the world. Our approach is continually evolving and now encompasses probabilistic assessment which identifies the lowest risk solutions before undertaking detailed analysis.
Pipeline structural elements include: Tieback of the Future and Pipeline Technology
I Pipeline specialist analysis
There are a number of installation processes that involve significant plastic deformation of the flowline. Reeling is the most common but there are others. The key concerns during these installation processes are local buckling of the flowline and girth weld fracture. We undertake detailed analysis to provide our clients with confidence that the flowline can be safely installed.
I Lateral buckling and walking analysis
We have developed world leading technology to address lateral buckling and walking of pipelines. We have broad experience in research & development, design verification & peer review, failure investigation and operational experience of lateral buckling and pipeline walking. On projects involving complex structural analysis, it is essential to undertake independent verification of LB&W analysis, to provide greater confidence in the safety of the design. During FEED and detailed design, peer reviews supported by verification analyses will deliver a robust, cost-effective design solution.
I Pipe-soil interaction
During production shut down and restart operations, subsea pipelines can move either laterally or axially over the seabed and this movement is resisted by the soil. The response is non-linear, depending on the interaction between load and resistance as the pipe displaces and deforms the soil. Pipe-soil interaction is the most significant uncertainty associated with subsea pipeline design and is critical to the characterisation of forces that will act on the pipeline as it responds to the loads caused by changes in temperature, pressure and hydrodynamics.
We have developed specialist probabilistic software to evaluate pipe-soil responses to avoid over-conservative design solutions.