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OMAE2007-29703
Danilo Machado Lawinscky da Silva Rodrigo Almeida Bahiense Breno Pinheiro Jacob
LAMCSO – Laboratory of Computational Methods and Offshore Systems – PEC/COPPE/UFRJ
Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
Fernando Gomes da Silva Torres Antonio Roberto Medeiros Marcos Nadalin Vaz da Costa
PETROBRAS – Petróleo Brasileiro S.A.
ABSTRACT
Conventional offshore pipeline installation operations in
Brazil have been performed in an S-Lay procedure employing
the BGL-1 barge, owned by Petrobras. However, this
procedure has some limits, and may not be feasible in some
particular scenarios. Therefore, the objective of this work is to
present the numerical simulation of an alternative pipeline
installation procedure. This procedure basically consists of
performing the pipeline assembly on shore, and deflecting it to
the sea using a tug boat.
The numerical simulations employ the SITUA-Prosim Figure 1: The BGL-1 Pipeline Launching Barge
computational tool, which is able to incorporate the correct
definition of the seabed and shore from bathymetric curves. An Since the laybarge usually operates at locations where the
actual pipeline installation by this lateral deflection procedure sea bottom is congested with other pipelines, Christmas trees,
is analyzed and discussed. The characterization of the manifolds, or fiber optics, the definition of the mooring
procedure passes through the determination of the better procedure (leading to the motion of the barge) must take into
velocity and direction of the tug boat in order to minimize the account not only the desired pipeline route, but also possible
efforts on the pipeline (especially due to the curvatures). interferences between the mooring lines and subsea obstacles.
In order to allow the correct representation of the seabed,
INTRODUCTION Petrobras developed a database system named SGO (Obstacles
Usual pipelaying operation procedures in offshore Brazil Management System)[1]. This system contains frequently
employ the BGL-1 barge (Figure 1) owned by Petrobras. This updated information about the bathymetry and position of
barge performs installation operations by moving forward subsea obstacles, gathered by a special vessel - RSV Salgueiro,
using its own mooring lines. This involves the definition of a equipped with a ROV (Remote Operated Vehicle). In order to
complex mooring procedure, as a sequence of operations that avoid interference and accidents with such obstacles, the
determine the mooring line positions and induce the laybarge definition of the mooring procedure includes the placement of
movement as it lays the pipeline. Basically, tug boats drop buoys attached to the cables, with the purpose of lifting the
anchors at some predefined positions; then the barge winches mooring lines and increasing the distance between cables and
release the stern mooring cables, and collect the mooring cables subsea obstacles [2]. The definition of the mooring procedure
located at the bow. should also provide information about the amount and length of
buoys' cables, pendants, and all related material such as
shackles, swivels, cables, etc as illustrated in Figure 2.
Figure 8: Buoy
0.0
Figure 16: Von Mises stress in the pipeline – 1 Km/h
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 800000 Direction (-5)
Time (s) Direction (0)
700000
Direction (5)
600000
Figure 14: Tension in the cable – 2 Km/h Direction (10)
500000 Direction (15)
T ra ct io n (K N)
0.0
Figure 18: Von Mises stress in the pipeline – 3 Km/h
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500
Time (s)
Figure 15: Tension in the cable – 3 Km/h Table 5: Von Mises Stress (KN/m2)
Direction/Velocity 1 Km/h 2 Km/h 3 Km/h
-5º 333896.6 442877.0 538018.3
Table 4: Maximum Tension in the cable (KN) 0º 356715.5 466120.9 577679.8
Direction/Velocity 1 Km/h 2 Km/h 3 Km/h 5º 397294.4 502232.4 622467.8
-5º 145.59 209.18 281.99 10º 397184.4 548049.9 677823.5
0º 131.48 201.94 268.79 15º 436822.4 578775.1 715493.6
5º 118.97 195.54 254.64 20º 462776.2 623533.7 762678.4
10º 111.89 190.07 242.96
15º 98.46 179.16 227.20 The results above indicate that the 10o direction is the most
20º 88.18 167.92 214.20 suitable, mainly at the first 10 minutes. At this time of
operation, when approximately 250m of pipeline has already
If only tension responses were considered, one could left the beach, the maximum values of Von Mises stress are
deduce that it would be more suitable to deflect the pipeline reached.
with a tugboat route of 20o, and velocity 1km/h, leading to a
The minimum values of curvature radius are shown in
maximum tension value of 88.18 kN. However, the behaviour
figures below.
of the pipeline stresses must also be considered, as shown in
the Figures that follow, containing the maximum values of Von
150
the pipeline. Finally, different headings were considered for the
125
100
system, relative to the environmental conditions.
75 The results of the analyses indicated that, for all cases, the
50
Direction (-5) Direction (0) Direction (5)
maximum values of Von Mises stresses are not an issue, always
25
0
Direction (10) Direction (15) Direction (20)
staying well below the yield stress of the material. The
0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 80.0 90.0 100.0
Pipeline Length (m)
objective then is to minimize tugboat forces.
Figure 19: Curvature Radius – 3 Km/h It was observed that, in configurations with two tugboats
such as the illustrated in Figure 22, smaller values of cable
Curvature Radios (m)
150
125
tensions are obtained when the pipeline is nearly aligned to the
100 resultant direction of the environmental conditions. However,
75 the cable tensions are still relatively high during the whole
50
150
125
100
75
50