Full Scale Reeling Simulation Tests of Girth Welded X60 HFW Linepipe

The reel-lay method is a fast and cost efficient installation process for offshore rigid steel pipelines. Pipelines installed by the reel-lay method are plastically deformed due to reeling, unreeling, aligning and straightening during pipeline installation. Therefore, local buckling is one of the major concerns from a view point of integrity in linepipes, especially around girth welds where strength mismatching arises due to adjacent pipes with different yield strength. One the other hand, the change in mechanical properties of linepipes during reel-lay, including coating process (e.g. 250°C) and long time exposure (e.g. 250°C aging) after installation is also important in order to guarantee safety of linepipes. Furthermore fracture toughness at girth weld Coarse-grain HAZ (CGHAZ) after reeling and aging should be clear to prevent brittle fracture of offshore linepipes in service. In this study, full scale reeling simulation tests of girth welded X60 HFW (High Frequency electric resistance Welded) linepipes with OD; 323.9mm and WT;15.9mm after full body heat treatment (coating simulation) were conducted at 5cycles and 2cycles reeling and straightening situations when yield strength mismatches are present between adjacent pipes around girth welds. Localized strain concentration was observed near girth welds by strength mismatching of adjacent pipes. DNV ovality increased with increasing reeling and straightening cycles, however the ovality did not exceed 10%, which was a criterion value for local buckling, after 5cycles reeling simulation test. The change ratio of wall thickness after full scale reeling simulation tests were about ±2% (within DNV-OS-F101 tolerance) regardless of circumferential and longitudinal direction of pipes. Longitudinal tensile properties could be characterized by axial last introduced plastic strain. That is, in the positive number of last introduced plastic strain, YS and Y/T increased, while uEl decreased by work hardening effect. On the other hand YS and Y/T decreased, while uEl increased at the negative number of last introduced plastic strain by Bauschinger effect. Circumferential tensile properties could be also characterized by axial last introduced plastic strain. Yield strength and Y/T slightly increased while uniform elongation slightly decreased by aging at longitudinal and circumferential direction. Tensile properties did not change irrespective of the number of cycles of reeling simulation tests. After 5cycles reeling simulation test and aging, girth welded CGHAZ CTOD values were over 0.4mm at −20°C and Charpy absorbed energy were over 200J at −30°V, therefore, it was considered that the brittle fracture of the girth welded linepipe unlikely occur at reeling and aging situation in this study.