Abstract

DE SOUSA, José R. M; ELLWANGER, Gilberto B  and  LIMA, Edison C. P. THREE-DIMENSIONAL FINITE ELEMENT MODEL FOR STRESS ANALYSIS OF FLEXIBLE PIPES. IMME [online]. 2004, vol.42, n.2, pp.1-20. ISSN 0376-723X.

Flexible pipes are composite structures made up of several steel and plastic structural layers which, working together, give strength and leakproofness, maintaining the necessary flexibility to conduct several fluids of the oil industry, mainly in the oil production offshore. In this work, a three-dimensional finite element model to predict the local mechanical behaviour of flexible pipes is proposed in order to overcome the lack of analytical models for the compression load analysis. Firstly, a flexible pipe under tension is analyzed. The results from the FE model are compared to those obtained with a previously reported analytical model. After that, the compression behaviour of the pipe is analyzed and some conclusions are stated.

Keywords : Flexible pipes; finite element method; local analisys.