Optimum Design of Submarine Suspended Pipelines

Abstract

Almost all submarine pipelines are currently laid on the sea floor. This practice is inherently expensive and the system is difficult to maintain and has a high possibility of excessive bending stress. The concept of suspending a pipeline under the ocean surface is investigated in the reported study. An optimum design algorithm is developed which can minimize the dynamic oscillation and the tensile stress of the pipeline resulting from the wave excitation. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the optimization procedure.