Analysis of free-spanning pipelines using design of experiments techniques

Resumo

The discovery of new oil and gas fields in offshore regions, increasingly distant from the coast, required
the use of pipeline systems increasingly extensive and exposed to more hostile environments. Due to irregularities
in the seabed and the length of the pipes, the occurrence of free spans, when the pipe loses contact with the ground
and is suspended, and the phenomenon of Vortex-Induced Vibrations (VIV) are greater, which can decrease the
system life. Thus, the analysis of free spanning pipelines is necessary for the design of the systems, which normally
requires numerical simulations. However, to reproduce the behavior of the pipe, a set of parameters, that are not
easily or precisely determined, is requested often demanding parametric studies that require countless numerical
simulations. In this way, this work has the objective of using techniques of design of experiments (DOE) in order
to improve the structural analysis of pipelines in free spans. The application of design of experiments techniques
allows to verify which parameters are most significant for the problem. Therefore, it is expected that the design
variables determined from the design of experiments will present accurate responses and the numerical simulation
process will be optimized.