Energy demand throughout the world is increasing. Yet the challenges facing society and the energy industry are more demanding than ever. There is an urgent need to balance sustained economic growth with longer-term environmental sustainability.

Realistic simulation has been a key enabler in the oil & gas industry for several decades. Geomechanics simulations have brought key values for: • Drilling - wellbore stability, lost returns• Completion - cementing, perforation, stimulation• Production - compaction and subsidence, casing and

other subsurface equipment integrity (including their design optimization), waste management

SIMULIA is engaged in developing new technologies to help address the financial and environmental challenges for such complex assets.

SUBSEA & OFFSHOREThis eBook focuses on the use of advanced geomechanics simulations for subsea & offshore applications. Read papers from our customers demonstrating how they use realistic simulation to: • Accurately predict dynamic stresses during installation of

offshore pipelines and risers. • Validate the design of subsea connectors to be subjected

to operating depths of nearly 4,000 ft. just inside the Artic Circle.

• Simulate the interactions among subsea components, taking into consideration the installation, hydrotest, operation, and full shutin loading conditions.

Continue reading to view these papers’ abstracts—then download the complete papers!

ENABLING SAFE AND EFFICIENT OIL & GAS OPERATIONS WITH REALISTIC SIMULATION

The increasing frequency in the use of Engineering Criticality Assessments (ECA) to determine weld quality in the installation of offshore pipelines and risers has put an increased focus on the importance of accurate predictions in dynamic stresses during installation and service. Over-predictions impose constraints to the installation campaign with high cost and safety implications. The response predictions of a pipe profile suspended from a vessel in random sea state with environmental loading and interaction with the seabed is a complex nonlinear problem.From a dynamic structural in place perspective the pipe catenary presents a near continuous spectrum of frequencies and modes of vibration. This has important dynamic numerical and structural relevance, implying excellent resonance transmissibility for any input forcing oscillation frequency. The numerical work used to represent the physical structural system presents a tendency to amplify its response. It is well diffused in the analytical community that common dynamic software presents unreasonable high dynamic amplification factors. This work proposes an Abaqus based approach to calibrate

appropriate damping. It is clear that the generalized effective parasite forces acting in phase with the velocity of the structure are key to the ultimate response in the dynamic analysis. When a simple cantilever beam is left oscillating to rest after an initial deflection in water or air medium, many of the software would over predict the total number of oscillations. When a pipe was dropped to rest on the seabed many software unrealistically counted several bounces indicating not accurate pipe soil dynamic interaction set up. The methodologies and “tools” set forth in this work are extendable to a variety of mechanical subsea components. The predictions reflected a rigorous process involving several iterations to validate predictions with numerical work reflecting a true of depiction of pipe response. This paper suggests essential quality control methods, used to debug dynamic lay predictions with a view to increasing Project offshore workability and ultimately Project profitability. This is greatly needed to make deep water and offshore oil and gas cost competitive with lower cost onshore reserves.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL PAPER Courtesy of Luca Suschitz¹, Leland H. Taylor² and Travis H. Matula¹, 1-LSE Design Inc., 2-Taylor Marine Construction LLC, 2016 Science in the Age of Experience

QUALITY CONTROL OF PIPE LAY AND RISER DYNAMIC ANALYSIS

The design phase for offshore rigid pipelines can be lengthy and demanding. A significant number of engineering hours can be burned before the various analyses attain target results. The assessment of the lateral buckling phenomenon is one aspect of the pipeline design that requires numerous finite element simulations. The purpose of such simulations is to determine if the pipeline has a genuine tendency for lateral buckling and, if so, whether control of the buckling behavior is required to ensure that the pipeline stresses and strains are within allowable limits.The process map for finite element based lateral buckling assessments follows a distinct procedure distributed into four generic steps: (1) gathering input information, (2) constructing finite element models, (3) running the simulations and (4) results post-processing. Typically, the process map is followed manually, and requires

engineering analysts to develop quite complex FE models using typed data input with subsequent use of batched Python scripts to acquire model results, verify and validate the analysis runs and make tabular and graphical output.Depending on project requirements and other circumstances such as availability of license tokens and disk space, the simulation process can be relatively inefficient and places a limit on the number of analysis runs that can be made and, therefore, the range of input that can be assessed. The latter point is important because the results of lateral buckling assessments depend heavily on input uncertainties (e.g. pipe-soil interaction data) and limiting the number of analysis runs may lead to conclusions that are not based on sound engineering judgment.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL PAPER Courtesy of Carlos Charnaux, Samuel Paul, and Graeme Roberts, Subsea 7, 2015 SIMULIA Community Conference

INCREASING THE EFFICIENCY OF OFFSHORE RIGID PIPELINE LATERAL BUCKLING ASSESSMENTS USING A DEDICATED GUI AND ISIGHT

Freudenberg Oil & Gas Technologies (FO&GT) in Port Talbot, UK, provides complex metal to metal sealing solutions for the oil & gas and energy industries. FO&GT is supplying two of its largest Optima® subsea connectors for use just inside the Arctic Circle. These will be the deepest of their kind anywhere in the world.Weighing some 10 tons, the Optima® is a high precision, multi-piece clamping system using a FO&GT Duoseal® metallic seal, tensioned by multiple leadscrew(s), activated via integral drive buckets. The resulting leadscrew tension positions the clamp segments on the hubs; as the tension increases, the opposing hubs are pulled together overcoming external forces and moments. Pressure energisation and plastic deformation ensure a high integrity double seal between the inner pipeline and the deep water environment.

Multi-body elasto-plastic finite element analysis (FEA) is used to simulate the interaction and contact between all parts of the Optima®, with focus on the stress and plastic strain of individual components during make-up and operation.Fluctuating in-service loadings such as temperature, pressure and bending moment are also analyzed to qualify the clamp segments, together with capacity analysis for the clamps and Duoseal®, where contact analysis is used to verify Duoseal® compliance. The Optima® is also required to overcome a range of hub misalignments, resulting from installation tolerances, friction and pipeline flexibility.The FEA simulation results of the Optima® will be used to support experimental test data obtained during factory trials, prequalifying these components to the most extreme subsea loading conditions.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL PAPER Courtesy of Dr. David Winfield¹, Laurence Marks², John Stobbart¹ and Nick Long¹, 1-Freudenberg Oil & Gas Technologies Ltd, 2-Strategic Simulation and Analysis Ltd, 2014 SIMULIA Community Conference

LARGE SCALE PROTOTYPING IN THE OIL & GAS INDUSTRY: THE USE OF FEA IN THE STRUCTURAL CAPACITY RATING OF A DEEP SEA PIPELINE CLAMPING SYSTEM

Oil and gas field development is moving into ever deeper waters to meet the world’s growing demand for energy. Subsea flowlines, jumpers and pipeline end terminals (PLETs) are the key components for a reliable and cost-effective subsea field development. Usually, the subsea flowline, jumper and PLET are designed and analyzed separately by different engineering groups using simplified end boundary conditions, and the interface loads from the flowline / jumper to PLET are obtained from de-coupled finite element (FE) models. Due to simplifications, the reactions among different subsea components may be over-estimated, resulting in un-optimized components in certain subsea design. The local stress and strain in pipes may also be overpredicted, especially when a large PLET pitch angle as per specified installation tolerances is considered for design.

This paper presents a comprehensive Abaqus model to more accurately analyze the subsea system collectively. The integrated Abaqus model including the flowline, PLET, jumper, and seabed is first discussed in details. Then, a case study with typical subsea design inputs is performed, considering the installation, hydrotest, operation, and full shutin loading conditions. It is observed from the Abaqus results that the proposed numerical model can more effectively and accurately simulate the interactions among subsea components; therefore, it may be cost-effective to consider this methodology in subsea system design.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL PAPER Courtesy of Chong Zhou, Xinhai Qi, and Lijuan Wang, Genesis, 2014 SIMULIA Community Conference

SUBSEA FLOWLINE-PLET-JUMPER INTEGRATED ABAQUS MODEL

This paper reviews, from the author’s particular perspective, the history of the application of finite element analysis in geotechnical engineering for the offshore over the past 30 years, with emphasis on the unique and dominant role of Abaqus analysis in that history.The paper covers foundation performance issues and applications for pile-founded, gravity base, and deep water structures. Applications to both exploration and production structures are treated. Many of the significant applications were complemented by extensive experimental test programs to confirm or validate the analyses.

Example analyses discussed include loading from waves and earthquakes as well as subsidence effects. The examples include applications of a wide variety of Abaqus element and material types as well as use of procedures for static, dynamic and soil consolidation analysis.The paper discusses the application of Abaqus’ geotechnical capabilities throughout their development and into the present, and it provides suggestions for further development of new capabilities to meet emerging needs.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL PAPER Courtesy of J. S. Templeton, III, SAGE USA, Inc., 2012 SIMULIA Community Conference

FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS IN OFFSHORE GEOTECHNICS – A THIRTY-YEAR RETROSPECTIVE

Energy, along with food and shelter, is an essential need of each of us. Strong growth of the global economy is fundamentally tied to the availability of accessible and reliable sources of energy in all forms: hydrocarbon based, renewable, and nuclear. For over 50 years, Technip and its subsidiaries have provided innovative products and engineering solutions to meet the needs of the Energy industry. Technip is active from the most challenging offshore, deepwater hydrocarbon plays, where the billions

of dollars of infrastructure are required for safe and reliable operations, to the massive, and equally capital intensive, refineries and LNG plants that are needed to convert those hydrocarbons into useful products to fuel our global economy. As the technical challenges facing the Energy industry have grown over the years, advanced engineering simulations have allowed Technip to overcome these challenges by taking its products and designs further.

ADVANCED ENGINEERING SIMULATION: ALLOWING TECHNIP TO TAKE IT FURTHER

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CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE VIDEO Courtesy of Jim O’Sullivan, Technip, 2012 SIMULIA Community Conference keynote address

Image courtesy Technip