Upheaval Buckling

Upheaval buckling refers to the phenomenon that occurs when trenched pipelines are subjected to axial compression forces as a result of high temperature and pressure. The pipeline experiences a large vertical displacement and push up through the soil cover, leaving the pipeline exposes to impact from anchors or trawlboards. Excessive bending is another failure mode.

GeoLines capabilities include:

• Conventional upheaval buckling assessment. The required download and minimum soil/rock cover is calculated assuming the pipeline is initially resting on an ideal imperfection.
  
  
• Advanced upheaval buckling assessment (DMS method). The seabed profile is modelled from smoothed OOS survey data, which is advantageous, as the analysis takes into account the pipeline response due to applied loads within and adjacent to the imperfections. A schedule of the required download and minimum soil/rock cover is outputted.
  

Advanced upheaval buckling assessment has been used on several pipeline projects where significant cost savings were achieved as a results of reducing the rock dump.


















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