th

Proceedings of the
t 34 International Conference on Ocean, Offfshore and Arctic Engineering
Proceeding of OMAE2014
June 8-13, 201
14, San Francisco, United State

O
OMAE2014-23778

INTEGR
RITY OF SUBSEA CONTROL UMBILICA
AL

Ramin Yass sseri Sirouss Yasseri

MEng Studedent Chieff Engineer
E
Brunel University Uxbridg
dge, Middlesex, UK Safe-Sight Technology
gy, Surbiton, Surrey, UK

Dr Bin Wang
Reader in Mechanical Engineering
Brunel University Uxbridge, Middlesex, UK

ABSTRACT internal and hydrostatic pressure.

pr This type of umbilicals is
Controlling subsea oil and gas production on systems requires used to connect subsea equiuipment, or provide long distance tie-
fibre optics, power cables and tubes for the transportation of backs to onshore control centres,
cen or fixed platforms. A dynamic
chemical for injection and fluid for hydraulaulic controls. These umbilical is used to link floating
flo topsides to subsea equipment
are arranged in helical bundles in successi ssive layers. Shaped and is designed to withstan
tand high pressure fluid containment
thermoplastic fillers are used to separate com
omponents and to fill and a high tensile load with
th fluctuations generated by the vessel
out voids in the cross section. If necessary,, armour
a is added to motion as well as wavess and a currents (Figure 1). In deeper
provide strength for the dynamic loads. ThisTh paper describes water, the strength of umbili
ilical becomes an important factor, as
the application of 3D finite element meth ethod to assess the installation loads are grea
reater for both static and dynamic
structural Integrity of subsea umbilical cals, including the umbilicals, causing high tensile
te load coupled with low radius
interaction between the constituent elements.ts. It is suggested to bending, which could endananger the umbilical’s integrity.
uses a global analysis to determine the intern
rnal forces and local
analyses (sub-modelling) for detailed stresss evaluation.
e Abaqus
is used for this purpose, due to its capabili ility with large size
problems under severe discontinuities duee contact
c conditions.
This paper also discusses the umbilicals als interaction with
seabed. The focus of this paper is on the fatig
tigue life calculation.

1 INTRODUCTION
Umbilicals are a long, flexible constructionn - its length can be
from a few kilometres to more than 200 km.. Umbilicals consist
of tubes, cables, armouring, fillers and wrwrapping which are
contained within a protective sheath. Thee multiple functions
that are demanded of umbilicals in harsh environments
en require
high reliability and dependability, as repapairing or replacing
them is an expensive activity. Figure 1: A dynamic umb
mbilical connecting a floater to the
subsea facilities
The primary function of a subsea umbilical al is to provide link
between facilities on a host platform to thee subsea production Umbilicals are line-like structures; namely one of their
equipment on the seabed. The number off power cables and dimensions (the cross-sect ection) is vastly smaller than their
tubes depends on the requirement and nd sparing policy. length and hence they are re flexible. They may undergo large
Combining all utility lines into bundles enab
ables fast installation displacement without strain aining. The factor that differentiates
by reeling. umbilicals from each other er, is the composition of their cross
sections. Flexible pipes arere made of several layers of steel and
An umbilical is either designed for dynamic ic or static conditions thermo plastics, while contr trol umbilicals are a number of small
[4]. A static umbilical is installed along thee seabed or trenched tubes, electrical cables andd fibre
f optic bundled together within a
and once installed the fluid conduits aree only subjected to sheath cover. If one ignoreores what is happing between various

1 Copyright © 2014 by ASME

layers making up a flexible umbilical,, then their global
behaviour can be studied in a similar fashion.
n. If the dynamic section hangngs freely between the vessel and the
seabed, the configuration is known as a free-hanging catenary.
Components are generally bundled togethe ther helically which Different installation config
igurations that provide support for the
adds to the overall strength and flexibility.. In multi-layered umbilical in the water colulumn may also be used, such as lazy
umbilicals the layers are usually contra rotat
tated. Umbilicals are wave, pliant wave, reverse rse pliant wave and steep wave. In
not bonded together, but kept apart using thermo-plastic
the fillers. general, the complexity andan severity of the requirements for
Helical winding makes the response whichh is known as stick- dynamic umbilicals increas ase with increasing water depth- see
slip behaviour ([19]). When loadings are not n large enough to [21] for power cables, and [1
[12] for arctic umbilicals.
overcome the shear friction at the co contact points, the
components will stick together. The shear ar resistance at the In the case of a fixed platfor
form, the umbilical is usually installed
interfaces are governed by the friction co coefficient, and the and supported in a J-tube or I-tube which runs from the surface
reaction forces at the interfaces generated by b the tension and to the seabed (Figure 2 and a Figure3). The section of the
torsion exerted on the umbilical. When the he interface shearing umbilical installed in eithe
her type of tube is considered to be
resistance is exceeded then components slipp and move from the static.
compressive side towards the tensile side off the
t umbilical.
2 PERFORMANCE E REQUIREMENTS
Pulling System A performance specif
cification establishes functional
requirements under various
us operating conditions. Compliance
Pulling with performance requiremments can be measured by analytical
Head Umbilical
Topside umbilical
Hang off methods (the purpose of this
th paper) or standard test methods
termination head with defined acceptance criteria.
cr Unless it is permitted, it is
Access Jacket assumed that the compon onent materials used, comply with
Platform
industry standards. The performance
pe specification establishes
J-Tube Supports measureable and enforceablble criteria in contract documents, to
J-Tube
be met by the supplier.
Interface Battery
ry
Limit There are several codes off practice
p giving recommendations on
Jacket the design of umbilicals. The
T most popular among them are
Subsea [2], [8], [19] and [25] Standard.
Sta The functionality must be
Umbilical
checked under the following
ng loading conditions:

• Functional loads:: These are loads acting during

Figure 2: Connection of umbilical to the
th topside in fixed manufacturing, installationn aand operation, including loads that
platform system. can act in still water cases.. Wind,
W wave and current are
excluded from this category ry.
• Environmental loa loads: loads applied to the umbilical
from the environment, i.e.. wind,
w wave, current and vessel
motion
• Accidental loads: which are induced by undesirable
events, such as incorrect opeperation, abnormal condition and
technical failure. Examples es of such loads are dropped objects,
anchor drop and anchor hoo ooking as well as hazards due to
fishing activities. Howeverr this
t type of loads is condition
dependent.

In addition to the abo bove accidental loads, in certain

geographical region, Geoha hazards could impose a threat. Such
hazards include, seismic ground
gr shaking, fault crossing, slope
failure, unstable ground and
nd turbidly flow.

Codes require the abovee loads to be combined in certain

fashion. For example ISOISO-13628-5 [19] recommends the
following load combination:
n:
Figure 3: Umbilicals connection to an
n FPSO - From a
project re-sources.

2 Copyright © 2014 by ASME

• Normal operation: This applies too thet permanent cables. VIV can have seriou
ious consequences for the fatigue life.
operational state of the umbilical, taking into
to consideration The allowable span length th is determined by comparing the
functional and environmental loads. vortex shedding frequency
cy at a range of possible flow rates
• Abnormal operation: This appliess to t the permanent with the natural frequency
cy of the umbilical. Umbilicals have
operational state of the umbilical taking intoo account
a functional, significant internal dampin
ing, and the damping effect of the
environmental and accidental loads. surrounding fluid can also
lso significantly alter the vibration
• Temporary conditions: This applie lies to temporary characteristics
conditions, such as installation, retrieval, pres
ressure testing and
other intermediate conditions prior to perman anent operation. Finite element analysis is used
us to determine the effect of spans
ISO-13628-5 [19] requires the fatigue life to be studied under along the route. The umbi bilical is modelled as laid on a flat
the following conditions: condition and in the next step
ste it is gradually lowered onto a 3D
• Direct wave loading as well as w wave induced host seabed with bathymetry data
ata of the route.
motion.
• Slow drift host motions including g variation of mean 5 GLOBAL-LOCAL L ANALYSIS
position Many researchers (e.g. see [7],
[ [17], [18], [20], [21], [23], [26],
• VIV response of the umbilical under un steady current [27]) investigated flexiblee marine structures, such as flexible
conditions pipes, deepwater risers andd uumbilicals.
• Cyclic loading during fabrication anand installation
Analysing of umbilicals usin
sing solids or shells elements leads to
• Cyclic loading due to operation of ththe umbilical.
a prohibitively large modedel with many degrees of freedom.
Thus, the analysis is carrie
ried-out in two levels; Figure 5. One
In general, similar failure modes as for or the pipelines is
way to alleviate this proble
lem is to use global-local modelling
observed for the static umbilical and failur
lure mode similar to
approaches, one method of which is often referred to as “sub-
deep-water riser for the dynamic umbbilical and hence
modelling”. The commercia cial FE package ABAQUS includes a
recommendations of pipeline and rise codess aare pertinent.
sub-modelling technique.. Sub-modelling is not the only
reduction technique, but by
y far the most popular one.
3 ON BOTTOM STABILITY
On-Bottom Stability Design of Submar arine Pipelines is
applicable for determining umbilicals latera
ral stability. DNV-
RP-F109 [9] method is based on an equil uilibrium balance of
forces acting on the cable (Figure 4). The ddynamic simulation
also incorporates random wave generationn and hydrodynamic
forces and soil modelling.

The difference between size of an umbili ilical and a typical

pipeline differentiates them. Umbilicals will generally sit
further into the turbulent boundary layer than
an pipelines because
of their size difference. This introduces a potential
p source of
error into the calculation of forces, due to the steady flow
velocity being a key input parameter.

Figure 5: Global model and

an the sub-mode

Sub-modelling employs ttwo models. The global model

represents the entire structure
st and contains a coarse
representation of the domamain of interest (for example using
general beam elements to rrepresent a complex cross section).
enched umbilical.
Figure 4: Wave forces acting on an un-tren However, the entire globa bal model is sufficiently refined to
accurately calculate the disp
isplacement solution on the boundary
of the domain of interest.. Subsequently,
S the solution obtained
4 FREE SPAN from the global model alongng the boundary of interest is applied
DNV-RP-F105 [8] is used for assessingg the likelihood of as a displacement boundar ary condition on the sub-model. In
Vortex-Induced Vibration (VIV) for steel pip
ipelines, and may be Abaqus transfer of data (which
(w may require interpolation) is
modified in order to be applicable to subsea
su transmission performed automatically by the software. However, with some

3 Copyright © 2014 by ASME

forethought in modelling extracting displa
placement from the The time-dependent fidelity
ity of the boundary conditions that are
global model and applying to the local model
el would be as easy. applied to the sub-modell is i known to affect the results. To
eliminate this effect the sub-model
s consists of the detailed
The design process begins with the definitio
tion of the functional geometry of the umbilical al between two nodes of the global
requirements, including the configuration ion and geometric model, in order to avoid in interpolation of displacement. The
parameters, installation and operation condiditions, floater data, time histories of displaceme
ments of these nodes from the global
environmental conditions, etc. The first step
tep is the conceptual analysis were applied to the local model. Additionally,
design, which involves the number of tubes,
es, power cables and operational loads (depending
ing on the location of sub-model were
fibre optics, choice of materials for each component,
co inner & also applied to achieve thee required
r fidelity.
outer sheaths, and armour layer.
6 DESIGN DATA
In this approach, the global analysis of the umbilical
u is carried- Many situations must be considered
c to ensure the long term
out using pipe elements or beam elements (general
( Section in integrity of umbilicals. These
Th include: on bottom stability,
Abaqus) for the general section. These elem lements will capture spanning, extreme conditiotion, unstable ground, VIV, dropped
the dynamic and nonlinear effects in a simplesim and efficient objects, fatigue, vessel motio
tion and so on.
manner, provided the mesh is good enough.. It is necessary that
the equivalent mechanical properties (EA, EI, E and GJ) of the Vessel motion is a major component
co of the loading, since it can
umbilical are correctly determined. These can
ca be obtained by a induce most of the fatigue ddamage to the umbilical. The motion
combination of testing and a 3-D finite elemement of a length of of a vessel can be specified
ed in a number of ways: directly by a
the umbilical. The compatibility “EA, E EI and GJ” with time history motion data or by specifying Response Amplitude
shell/solid sub-model verified my manual calculations
c as well Operators (RAOs) for each ch of 6 degrees of freedom (surge,
using the sub-model to replicate these parame
meters. In the Global sway, heave, roll, pitch and
nd yaw - Figure 6), or indirectly by
analysis the bend restrictor area is modelled
led with still smaller giving first order wave load
ad RAOs or Second order wave drift
size elements in order to capture changes in stiffness.
s QTFs (Quadratic Transform rm Functions), or a combination of
both.
The global analysis yields the displacem ements and stresses
resultants (axial force, bending and torsionanal moments) along
the umbilical length. These results are good od enough to check
the umbilical strength under extreme conditio
itions [30]. However,
the use of beam elements does not allow thee direct computation
of stresses and strains of each component oof the umbilical for
the fatigue calculations. More detailed infor
formation is required
for the fatigue life determination. Thus, the stress
s resultants and
displacements calculated in the global analysis
a at critical
sections are used as input for local analysi sis (sub-modelling).
These critical sections are at the touch downn zone, and the point
where the umbilical is connected to the vessessel; and perhaps at
the mid-height buoy if it is used. The locall analysis is carried-
out using refined shell or solid finite elemen
ent models, as these
elements allow the computation of stressess and
a strains for each
component, as required by the fatigue analyslysis procedure using
S-N curves. Figure 6: Definition of surge,
su sway, heave, roll, pitch and
yaw, modes of motion inn body-fixed
b frame. (From internet
The sub-model is a highly refined model el of the domain of resources)
interest. The primary assumption of sub-mo modelling is that the
structural details of the sub-model do nott significantly
s affect Vessel motions in wav aves are commonly defined by
the solution in the global model. In most praractical applications, displacement Response Am Amplitude Operators (RAOs). Each
there are no a priori methods for determin ining the validity of displacement RAO consistssts of a pair of numbers that defines
this assumption. It is therefore left to the analyst
an to determine the vessels response, for one
on particular degree of freedom, to
the validity of this assumption, based on prio
ior experience. one particular wave directio
tion and period. The two numbers are
amplitude, which relates the amplitude of the vessel motion to
It should be remembered that both globall and local analyses the amplitude of the wave ve, and a phase, which defines the
used in this study are dynamic and perfor ormed by the direct timing of the vessel motion
on relative to the wave. RAOs can be
integration capability of Abaqus/Standard obtained either from model
el test or via computational methods.

4 Copyright © 2014 by ASME

All vessel motions are applied to the umbilical at the point of analysis is to utilize either the zero-up-crossing method or zero-
attachment to the vessel. This is a major critical fatigue region, down-crossing method as the standard techniques for defining
which occurs directly below the attachment point. The applied wave ([3] and [11]).
motion at the top of the umbilical is transferred down the length This study uses Pierson-Moskowitz (PM) energy density
of the umbilical and is converted to bending, above the point at spectrum which is wildly used for characterising waves in the
which the umbilical touches down on the seabed, the touch open sea ([3]). There are several expressions for PM energy
down zone (TDZ). This is another critical fatigue region. The density spectrum. The following formula of the PM spectrum
fatigue damage is highest at the touch down zone. Assumption ([3]), which depends on the sea–state representing parameters
can be made regarding the effect of seabed material affect the i.e. Hs and Tz, has been used in this study to decompose a sea-
fatigue life in the TDZ; for example, a rigid seabed can give state into several sinusoidal wave components [3].
high levels of conservatism when compared to an elastic seabed
([15] and [28]. = × 0< <∞ (1)
Where
The operational loads are the density and pressure of content
and the environmental effects. The strength of an umbilical is = , = , is the frequency of !"ℎ wave component
checked for extreme cases. In extreme storm events the vessel (Hz), Hs is the significant wave height (m), Tz is the mean zero-
motions may be severe enough to cause compression and crossing period of a sea-state (s).
buckling in the touch down point region of a simple catenary
umbilical. Response of umbilicals is non-linear and time Zeroth, first and second spectral moments are obtained from
dependent. [3]:
%.(%) ,
$% = ; $ = * ; $+ = (2)
For the design of offshore structures a “design” wave is defined & ,&
&
which has 100 year return period. The term ‘regular’ refers to When decomposing an irregular sea state to be used in the
unidirectional train of waves with constant amplitude and analysis, one technique is to divide the wave spectrum into N
frequency and hence constant length. If the steepness (=
columns of width∆. (or in term of frequency ), as shown in
length/amplitude) is sufficiently small, the waves are said to be
the upper part of Figure 7. The lower half of the figure shows
linear or Airy waves.
how the wave components are summed up to give the resulting
irregular sea. Figure 8 shows another way of visualizing
Ocean waves are random and complex and may be idealised as
another way to visualize the transition from the wave spectrum
a large number of wavelets of different heights, periods and
in the frequency domain to the irregular wave elevation in the
directions. They can effectively be modelled in terms of
time domain
regular wave trains, combining in random phase. An important
advantage of such modelling is that the complete description of
the wave motions including surface kinematics for the regular
components can be linearly superposed to provide
corresponding complete descriptions of the combined wave
motion. The random nature of the surface of the oceans means
that it can only be quantified statistically. The statistics do not
change very much over an interval of about 3 hours and the
sea-state is characterized by significant wave height and mean
zero-crossing period, as defined below, and sometimes by peak
period (Tp).

The significant wave height denoted by Hs is a common

representative height for a sea-state. Originally, it was defined
as the mean value of the highest one third of a sample of the
sea-state wave heights. According to modern definitions, Hs
is defined in terms of the variance of the sea surface elevation.

ABAQUS/AQUA requires the input sea-states to be given in Figure 7: An irregular sea state is decomposed into several
the form of waves. Thus a sea-state needs to be decomposed regular waves, using a spectrum. The arrows indicate the
into several sinusoidal wave components identified by 3 quasi-random wave heights (from [16]). This figure waves
parameters i.e. amplitude, period and phase angle. are presented in terms of circular frequency, / = 012 .

The mean zero up-crossing periods denoted by Tz is another It was assumed the Pierson-Moskowitz (P-M) spectral
characteristic of a sea-state. The customary practice in wave formulation represents the sea-state. Each sea-state was

5 Copyright © 2014 by ASME

decomposed into 30 sinusoidal component ents having its own
amplitude, frequency and phase angle. Thee phase angles were
generated randomly between 0 and 360 degregrees. Then for each
sea-state the range of frequency (bandwidth)
h), i.e. zero to where
the spectrum approaches zero, was determine
ined and divided into
30 subintervals. The frequency of each sububinterval end point
was selected as each component frequency.cy. Then, given the
frequency of the component, its amplitude w
was calculated using
the following formula:

3 = 45 6 7 × ∆ (3)
Where
3 = the amplitude of jth component,
= the frequency of jth component, Figure 9: The static part
rt of the example umbilical. From a
6 7 = energy density given by Eq. (1), project files.
∆ =6 8 9 7:5
Table 2: Composition off the
t static part of umbilical

Item QTY Description Nominal Nominal

thickness Diameter
mm mm
1 8 1.25” SD ste
steel tube, 5.08 42.16
900 bar , she
heathed
2 3 1” SD Steelel tube, 900 3.85 33.1
bar, sheathed
hed
3 13 ½” SD steelel Tube, 900 1.77 16.24
bar, Sheathe
hed
Figure 8: The connection between the ffrequency-domain 4 2 Fibber Optic
tic Element, 20.2
and time-domain representation of wavess (From [11]) 24 SM fibbebers,
armoured
Table 1: Simplified Scatter diagr
gram for North 5 1 Centre tubee sheath 18.
Atlantic Sea conditions 6 Wrapping 0.32
Sea-State Sea State 7 3 Electrical Qua
Qu
Definition Occurrence 16mm^2, 1kV1k
Tzu (sec) Hs (m) (%) 8 3 Profiled Fill
iller
1.95 0.3 7.2 9 1 HDP Outerr Sheath
S 6.8 ~230
3.34 0.88 22.2
4.88 1.88 28.7 Table 3: Mechanical prop
operties of the example umbilical
6.42 3.25 15.5
Parameter Parameter Unit
7.96 5.00 18.7
MHT (utilisation factor of 100% 1 996 [KN]
9.75 7.50 6.1
SMYS)
12.07 11.50 1.2
Min. breaking load (No bending,
be 3 593 [KN]
13.32 14.0 0.2
100% UTS)
MBR (elastic limit) 6,69 [m]
The P-M wave height spectrum with paraarameters related to Axial stiffness 1 376 [MN]
open seas and a North Atlantic wave scatter
sca diagram has Bending stiffness 243 [kNm2]
been employed in this study (see Table 1).
1 Torsion stiffness 275 [kNm2]

7 CASE EXAMPLE The umbilical is installed

ed in 500m water (Figure 10) and
This section details the application of the
he design procedure connected to an FPSO. Thhe far end is connected to a subsea
outlined above to an umbilical in 500 m oof water. Figure 9 cluster about 8 kilometers away.
a The umbilical make-up is the
shows the static section of the umbilical and
an Tables 2 and 3 same along the length, exc
xcept the about 1000m (the dynamic
give the rest of data.

6 Copyright © 2014 by ASME

part), which is connected to the vessel, hhas extra armor to igid seabed can give high levels of
(TDZ). For instance, a rig
achieve the required strength and fatigue life.
fe. ared to an elastic seabed.
conservatism when compare

The analysis was conducted in a time domain ain covering 3 hours. The umbilical was model eled on the seabed for the global
To facilitate the derivation of spectral prope
perties from the time analysis. In the first step off a multi-step analysis the self-weight
series, the response was computed for at lealeast 2048 (multiples was applied and a non-line near static analysis was performed to
of 1024- See [30]) sampling points for each eac location on the determine the equilibrium pposition. In the next step one end of
umbilical. the umbilical was lifted aand brought it to the vessel mean
position. The third step was as a direct integration non-linear time
domain analysis in which h the umbilical was exposed to the
effect of wave loading calculated
ca by Morrison equation in
ABAQUS. Airy wave theor ory was used for this analysis, as it is
considered to be accuratee for low amplitude waves in deep
water. For each sea-state, the
th sea surface was presented using a
large number of Airy wave ves. ABAQUS/AQUA [1] software
was used to analyze the umbilical
u for all sea-states given in
Table 1.

The geometry and effect ctive axial force (Neff) were also
solver from the effective weight (we),
computed by the catenary so
cal ( ), and sea depth for the mean
top angle with the vertical
hecked against Abaqus results. Figure
configuration. This was che
12 shows the global model.l.
Figure 10: The umbilical configurati
ation including a
depiction of the touchdown zone. MATLAB was utilised to yield the wave amplitudes and
wavelengths of the compon onents representing the required sea
state based on a Pierson-Mooskowitz spectrum. Table 4 gives an
example of the wave compoponents for one sea state. The number
of wave components has been
be limited to 30 components. The
nerated randomly [29].
phase information was gene

Table 4: Hydrodynamic
amic Coefficients
Coe

Hydrodynamic Value
Coefficients
Drag Coefficient, 0.7
Figure 11: Touchdown zone as a bebed of non-linear
Normal
springs; see also [15] and [28].
Drag Coefficient,, Axial 0.0
Added Mass, Normal 1.0
Added mass, Axial 0.0

Umbilical is a slender struructure, hence Morison’s equation is

applicable. The basic assum umption of Morrison method is that
the diameter of cylinder D compared with wavelength L is
small, D/L<0.2, hence the ccylinder cannot affect the wave field.
Abaqus uses Morrison’ss equation [3]. The hydrodynamic
coefficients used for the rise
iser are summarized in Table 4.

This form of simulation is subject to approximations and

Figure 12: The global model limitations that should be recognised. Limitations are
introduced by the fact that th the method adopted for the
Various ideas for the modeling of the touc uchdown zone were decomposition of the spec ectrum into wave components uses
explored (Figure 11). Assumption made rega egarding the effect of deterministic wave amplitu
itudes fixed by the spectral values at
seabed material affect the fatigue life in thee Touch down Zone equal frequency intervals.. Consequently
C the randomness of the

7 Copyright © 2014 by ASME

process is undermined and the wave signall maym repeat itself at The modelling of the sub-m model starts with building a part in
regular intervals. The approximation relatess to
t the fact that only Abaqus-CAE whose crosss section
s is exactly as shown in Figure
30 components are used, increasing the likeikelihood of missing 9. After saving the cross section
se of this part as a sketch (Figure
the contributions of a natural mode to the total
to response due to 13), the building of the part
rt is abandoned. This sketch gives all
the greater spacing between the wave compo ponents. On the other components in their exactt location. Some components (e.g.
hand, if wave components are close to a natu
atural frequency then fillers and tube’s protectiv
tive sheaves, cables and fibre optic)
the resulting response would be conservativeive in comparison to must be modelled as solid lid, while tubes can be modelled as
using more wave components with lower er amplitudes. More shells. Avoiding modelling g aall components in solid also reduces
detail can be found in reference [30]. the number of degrees of freedom.
fr It was further assumed that
if the sub-model is short (5.0
5.0m here), then the curvature may be
Table 4: A sample of Decomposition
on of a sea-state ignored, hence the numberr oof different geometries to be built is
characterized by Hs = 1, Tz = 3 reduced. This assumption is i valid away from TDZ and bends
restrictor area. However, models
m with actual curvature can be
Amplitude Period Phase angle built by applying displacem ement to a model built as discussed
(m) (s) (deg) and then the coordinates off deformed
d geometry is used as a new
0 27.4 3 342.0465 model.
0 13.7 2 83.2099
0 9.14 218.4633
0.0135 6.86 174.9537
0.1006 5.49 320.8676
0.1603 4.57 274.3549
0.1619 .3.9 2 164.3284
0.1404 3.43 6.6613
0.1159 3.05 295.7066
0.0944 2.74 160.0932
0.077 2.49 221.5557
0.0634 2.29 285.0973
0.0527 2.11 331.8527
0.0442 1.96 265.7546
0.0374 1.83 63.4558
0.032 1.71 146.0542
0.0276 1.61 336.7691
0.024 1.52 330.0856
0.021 1.44 147.6973
0.0185 1.37 321.7138
0.0164 1.31 20.8409
0.0146 1.25 127.0325
0.0131 1.19 292.7399
0.0118 1.14 3.5501
0.0107 1.1 50.0007
0.0097 1.06 72.9955 Figure 13: Sketch of thee cross
c section. The top figure shows
0.0088 1.02 71.5398 all components except thee fillers. The bottom figure shows a
0.008 0.98 217.3653 sketch that was built for fillers.
fi Abaqus/CAE
0.0073 0.95 97.9877
For this study, all tubes incl
cluding the external protective sheath
0.0068 0.91 71.5731
were modelled as shell and nd the rest as solid and all of them
were created by extrusion with
w a given depth and twist (pitch).
The phase angle was genet red usingg random number Although, the entire mode del can be built by calling up the
generation in MATALB. True randomness cannot c be achieved. sketches prepared earlier, er, a better policy is to create
Table 4 shows only one realisation of the phase
p angle. Other components (parts in Abaqu qus) one at a time.
phase angles were also tested before setting oon one [29].
Start creating a part by defin
ning a size for the drawing and if the
part is created by extrusion
n etc.
e and if it is solid or shell. Call up

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the previously generated sketch and delete te irrelevant section Figure 14 shows variouss vview of the sub-model with some
and extruded the remaining lines (compone nent of interest). All components removed for clarity.
c Figure 15 shows the entire
components within the umbilical can bee built this way. In model. While, Figure 16 showss only the major components
assembly module they are brought together. er. Due to using the (steel tubes) including the ou
outer sheath.
same sketch for all of them, parts are in cor
orrect location. Such
modelling approach, allows meshing each part pa individually and
assigning its property also individually.
If the assumption of curvature has little influence,
i then the
difference between various sub models is jusjust the displacement
histories at their boundaries. Since the length
gth of the sub-model
was divisible by the length of elements of the global model, the
sub-model boundary coincides with the globa bal nodes, thence no Figure16: The sub-model
el with filler material removed for
interpolation is need. the sake of clarity.

The global analysis of thee models was carried out using non-
linear direct integrationn dynamic analysis capability of
Abaqus/Standard [1]. The general
g contact in Abaqus was used.
The penalty method wass used for the tangential behavior
(friction coefficient 0.45)
5) and “hard” contact for normal
behavior. In addition, thee add-on option Abaqus/Aqua was
used. It contains optional features
fe that are specifically designed
for the analysis of beam-llike structures installed underwater
and subject to loading by wa
water currents and wave action

Results of global analyse were

w mapped onto the sub-models of
various sections of the umbilical.
u Except for the vessel
connection point and the T TDZ sub-models look alike. Table 5
gives some details of the two
wo models.

Table 5 Details of the mode

dels

Model Elem
ement Characteristic Number
type
pe length mm of
elements
Global Seabed R3DD4 500 12852
Umbilical Pipe
pe32 200
Local All tubes S8R
R 50 228388
Others C3DD20R 5

Figure 14: this figure shows the arrange

gement of example
umbilical.

Figure 17: One frame off the time domain analyses results
for the outer tubes.

Figure 15: The geometry of the sub-moodel. Note that the The process of dynamic aanalyses for several sea sate and
model is a combination of solid and shelll elements.
el performing a number off sub-model
s analyses create a large
amount of data, which shoul
uld be sifted through to determine the

9 Copyright © 2014 by ASME

critical stresses for all points and for all components.
co This is composite results for variou
ious vessel ordination, soil condition,
discussed in [30]. Figures 17 and 18 are sam amples of the result, hydrodynamic coefficient anand point around the cross section (8
showing one frame of the stress level of the outer metal tubes points were chosen). This study
s used the rainflow algorithm in
under the dynamic load during the time doma main analysis. MATLAB code developed ed by Nieslony [24]. The fatigue
damage is highest in tou ouch down zone, followed by the
Results for eight points around the pperimeter of each connection point at the FPSO
SO.
component were stored in a file. Using thee rain flow counting
procedure [24], stress ranges and the cy cycle number were
calculated. This process was automated so that
th large number of
data can be handled. It should be noted tthat due to helical
nature of components, some approximation on of stress range is
necessary in order to be cope with large numb
mber of data.

Figure 19: Fatigue lives along

al the umbilical length

8 CONCLUDING REMARKS
R
This paper discussed thee ddesign of dynamic umbilical with
emphasis on the fatigue life
li estimation, using Abaqus. It is
shown how to define an irregular sea state for use in
Abaqus/Aqua for both streng
ength and fatigue life calculations.

Failure modes for umbilica cals range from material degradation

Figure 18: One frame of the timee domain analysis; to fatigue failure and loss of strength under extreme conditions.
showing only metal tubes. This is particularly thee case for harsh and dynamic,
environments where the loading
lo conditions are random; see
In principle there is redundancy in the um mbilical makeup, so [13] and [14]. Failure is defined as an incident that is
that failure of one component should not nenecessitate retrieving detrimental to the functiona
nality of the fluid conduits, electrical
and replacing the umbilical. However, fromrom fatigue point of conductor or fibre optical ca
cable. In the past, the majority failure
view, all outer tubes (as well as inner tubes
es) are identical and (about 2/3) have occ ccurred during installation and
there is no major difference between them, m, except if there is commissioning and almos ost half the failures associated to
pressure due to the content. manufacturing and installati
ation errors. Most mechanical failures
were associated to the failur
ure of attachment/hang-off points.
The fatigue life of an umbilical requiress a large number of
dynamic, accounting for consistent repr presentation of all In the sub-modelling appro proach, a global model is developed
environmental loads imposed to the structureure; see e.g. [5] and and its solution determined ed. The displacements at each node
[22]. For each load case the stress field over
er the component has that enclose the local mode del’s boundary are determined from
to be determined. The slip between adjacen cent components can the global solution. Thes ese nodal displacements are then
be ignored as the softer material used between
bet components interpolated and applied too the
t local model at the local model’s
mitigate the effect of fretting and wear. boundary as the forced response
re boundary conditions. The
accuracy of the local model el depends on how closely the global
The calculation of the wave fatigue damag
age is based on X’ model captures the solutionon at the local model’s boundary. The
curve as specified in API RP 2A andd E S-N curve as computational savings iss achieved by forcing element size
recommended by UK-HSE: consistency and by reducingng the total number of elements in the
global model. The successs ofo this approach is highly dependent
5'= > ( ?@ -A ('B CD E F 9 ?JKL M
;=< + ('%
upon the determination off the
t homogenized properties used in
>' G > ?@ -A H I I 9 ?JKL the global analysis. The su sub-modelling analysis technique in
Abaqus [1] has been show own to be applicable to dynamics
; is the permissible number of cycles for or a stress range -A analysis. Sub-modelling canca lead to artificially high frequency
MPa, SCF is the stress concentration factorr w
which is assumed to content, but If the time step
teps of the global analysis is not too
be 1.3. Results reported here are based on the
he HSE E curve. coarse any high frequency cy content will be minimised, also
helped by the frictional forc
rces at the interface of components.
A typical fatigue life distribution plot, for one
on outer tube, along The global and sub-model el procedures do not have to be the
the umbilical length is given in Figure 19. 9. This figure give a same. For example, the global
glo procedure can be performed in

10 Copyright © 2014 by ASME

 ABAQUS/Standard [1] to drive a sub-modelling procedure in [ 16 ] Huss. M., 2013, Notes on the modelling irregular seas
ABAQUS/Explicit [1] and vice versa. Both global and local in time simulations, Accessed on.
analyses in this study use implicit version of Abaqus [1]. http://www.mhuss.se/documents/Downloads/101129m
h_Notes_IrrSea_R2.pdf, 2010. Accessed on
There are other types of damage, e.g. fretting or wear damage 19/12/2013.
[10], which was not addressed in this study. However, based on [ 17 ] Gallagher, D. & Grealish, F., 2003. Steel Tube
what is reported in the literature, these types of damage are Umbilicals (STUs) – Key Issues for Deep Water
mostly prevalent in multi-layered flexible pipes. Predicting, Dynamic Applications. Offshore, 63(11), p. 89.
Measuring and Implementing Friction Stresses in dynmaic [ 18 ] Johansen, R. B., Veritas, D. N. & Ekeberg, K. I., 2005.
analysis is performed in this study bu Abaqus’s sub-modelng Subsea Umbilicals - Joint Industry Project Aiming to
and conact definition. However, this issue was dealt using a Revise ISO 13628-5. Offshore Technology
different approach in [6]. Conference
[ 19 ] ISO 13628-5:2009 Design and Operation of Subsea
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