FABRICATION OF COMPOSITE BALL SOCKET PIPELINE JACKET FOR SUBSEA FLOWLINES PROTECTION SYSTEMS

Ball Socket Pipeline Jacket (BSPJ) is a protective system for onshore or offshore pipelines to shield cables from abrasion, corrosion, and impact while providing a system with custom additional submerged weight that suit the bottom stabilization of offshore flow-lines taking into account that BSPJ could be a sophisticated bending-restrictor system. This study shows the prototyping procedures and the robust testing of the full-scale prototype through physical failure test and software simulation of the BSPJ under critical pressure limit. Simulation of the BSPJ is analysed under environmental and operational conditions on BSPJ viscoelastic limit in accordance with DNV-RP-F109. Their reliability growth, accelerated life and robust design were determined to further improve the design for commercialisation. The ball socket design shows that it could withstand a high compression load through buckling test. New design of the BSPJ definitively reduce total volume for each part and ease assembly thus improving the capital and operating costs.