Ocean Engineering 206 (2020) 107337

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Ocean Engineering
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/oceaneng

Behavior of API 5L X56 submarine pipes under transverse impact

Xudong Gao a, Yongbo Shao b, *, Liyuan Xie a, Dongping Yang c
a
School of Mechatronic Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, 610500, China
b
School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, 610500, China
c
Technology Inspection Center, China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, Dongying, 257062, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The performance of API 5L X56 submarine pipes subjected to transverse impact is investigated through both drop
Drop weight impact tests weight impact tests and finite element simulations. To study the improvement of resistance to transverse impact
API 5L X56 submarine pipes for pipe-in-pipe specimens, corresponding single-layer pipe specimens under impacting load were also tested for
Local indentation
comparison. From the experimental tests, the failure mode, the impact force-time history curve, the
Post-peak mean force
Energy absorption capacity
displacement-time history curve, the strain-time history curve and the impact force - displacement curve of all
specimens were obtained. The pipe-in-pipe specimens are found to have superior performance to resist impacting
loading compared to single-layer specimens because smaller global bending deformation and local indentation
were observed in them. In addition, the cross-section deformation rate, R, was proposed, and the local inden­
tation length of the specimen was divided into three zones based on experimental observation and numerical
simulation. A comprehensive comparison of the length and the depth of local indentation in the pipe-in-pipe
specimens shows that the local indentation decreases and the impact resistance increases due to the presence
of the inner tube. Finally, the post-peak mean force (Pm) and the energy absorption capacity (EAC) were used to
evaluate the energy dissipation mechanism of different specimens. The results also indicate that the pipe-in-pipe
specimens have better energy absorption performance.

structures. Many researchers have studied the transverse impact resis­

1. Introduction
Submarine pipeline is an important part of offshore petroleum en­
gineering. The hanging of submarine pipeline is observed frequently due
to the scouring of sea water (Pilkey et al., 1995; Aljaroudi et al., 2015).
During service period, the hanging pipelines may suffer from accidental
impact loads, such as the ship collision, anchoring and falling objects.
Serious damage was found in the pipelines after experiencing impacting
load. It is necessary to further understand the impact characteristics of
submarine pipelines and study the actual reinforcement methods (Zei­
noddini et al., 2013). Pipe-in-pipe systems are being used extensively in
the design of high-pressure and high-temperature streamlines due to its
excellent thermal insulation performance (Karampour et al., 2017;
Zhang et al., 2018). Compared with single-layer pipes, pipe-in-pipes
have an interaction between the inner tube and the outer tube during
a collision event besides having all the characteristics of single-layer
pipes. Therefore, it is of vital significance to study the dynamic char­
acteristics of submarine pipelines under impact loading for design and
evaluation purposes.
Circular steel tubes are the most common component in ocean steel
tance of circular steel tubes in recent years. Soares and Søreide (1983)
firstly studied the impact resistance of circular steel tubes and proposed
a rigid-plastic analytical formulation applicable to steel tube compo­
nents under transverse impact loading. Subsequently, Jones et al. con­
ducted transverse impact tests and theoretical research on fully clamped
circular steel tubes. They presented a theoretical rigid-plastic procedure,
which allows the local or denting deformation to continue during the
global deformation phase (Jones et al., 1992). To study further the
failure mode of steel pipes, Jones and Shen (1992) carried out drop
hammer impact tests on 130 steel pipes and studied the influence of
different impact positions on the impact resistance of pipes. However,
the ideal condition of full clamping was not acquired in their tests, and
an overestimation of the input energy required for the failure may be
produced. To solve this problem, Jones and Birch (1997) designed a
special structure to achieve full clamping at pipe ends, and they used
such structure to study the effect of different impact locations on the
impact performance. The critical values for the two failure energies were
also obtained for a range of internal gas pressures. In addition, Chen and
Shen (1998) studied systematically the impact failure of fully clamped
steel tubes, taking into account the influences of different tube shapes,

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: ybshao@swpu.edu.cn (Y. Shao).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2020.107337
Received 13 September 2019; Received in revised form 1 April 2020; Accepted 2 April 2020
Available online 15 April 2020
0029-8018/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
X. Gao et al. Ocean Engineering 206 (2020) 107337

Nomenclatures Sleft maximum displacement at point Pleft

Sright maximum displacement at point Pright
B length of the end plate SL local indentation
DI external diameter of inner pipe SLP1 local indentation depth at point P1
Do external diameter of outer pipe SG residual deformation at bottom surface
Dmax maximum diameter of deformed cross-section ST maximum displacement at impact position
Dmin minimum diameter of deformed cross-section SLP2 local indentation depth at point P2
E Young’s modulus of API 5L X56 steel So displacement at beginning of stable phase
Ep Young’s modulus of polyurethane elastomer Ssid average maximum displacement at point Pleft and Pright
Ei total impact energy SG, max maximum displacement at the bottom surface (Pmid) of
Eg impact energy dissipated by global bending deformation specimen at the mid-span
Es dissipated impact energy obtained by displacement Td thickness of end plate
integration at point Pleft To wall thickness of outer tube
EL dissipated impact energy by local indentation TI wall thickness of inner tube
h drop height Vo initial impact velocity
L length of specimen y1 distance from point P1 to cross-section
Md total weight of indenter y2 distance from point P2 to cross-section
Mp total weight of specimen εmax maximum strain at different locations
D, P material constants of Cowper-Symonds, D is a rate- ε_ average strain rate at different locations
dependent constant and P is a positive dimensionless σdy dynamic yield stress of the steel
parameter σy static yield stress of API 5L X56
Pm post-peak mean force εy static yield strain of API 5L X56
Pms Pm obtained by integrating displacement at point Pleft σP yield stress of polyurethane elastomer
Pmm Pm obtained by integrating displacement at point Pmid ρ density of polyurethane elastomer
Ro radius of specimen
μp Poisson’s ratio of polyurethane elastomer

impact positions and boundary conditions on the performance of steel
tubes subjected to transverse mass impact. Apart from clamped
boundary conditions, Ong and Lu (1996) studied experimentally the
collapse load of steel tubes under different support conditions, and a test
program was carried out to determine the collapse load and
energy-absorbing capacity. Li et al. (2019) conducted experiments and
parametric study through finite element analysis on the performance of
ultra-high strength steel (UHSS) hollow tubes under low velocity
transverse impact loading. The parametric study showed that UHSS
hollow steel pipes have similar failure pattern with that of normal
strength steel tubes. However, the deflection at mid-span and the re­
sidual deformation decrease significantly.
When subjected to transverse impact loading, steel tubes in service
may be also subjected to other loading cases, such as axial load or in­
ternal pressure. Extensive studies on the performance to transverse
impact for circular steel tubes under pre-loading have also been con­
ducted in literature. Zeinoddini et al. (1998, 1999, 2002, 2008a, 2008b)
conducted both experimental and numerical investigations on the
impact resistance performance of circular steel tubes under pre-loading
in axial direction. In these studies, they considered the effect of different
boundary conditions at the ends of the steel tubes (Zeinoddini et al.,
1998). The results demonstrated that the axial pre-loading has a great
influence on the lateral load level which the members can sustain and
more dramatically on the level of the energy which the members can
absorb before collapse. It was found that axial pre-loading has a sig­
nificant impact on the dynamic characteristics of cylindrical compo­
nents than quasi-static ones (Zeinoddini et al., 1999). Experimental
study on the transverse impact performance of the axial pre-loaded
tubes indicated that the axial pre-loading has a significant effect on
the transverse compressive resistance. Through numerical simulations,
the effects of some parameters, such as structural damping, variations in
the pre-loading and so on, on the response of steel tubes under trans­
verse impact were also investigated (Zeinoddini et al., 2008a). In recent
years, Zhi et al. (2018) conducted an experimental study on the me­
chanical properties of axially pre-loading circular steel pipes under
transverse impact by using a bladder accumulator to compensate the
axial compression load. It was found that the axial tension can improve
the bending resistance and the lateral compressive resistance of steel
pipes, while the axial compressive stress can reduce the lateral
compressive resistance significantly. Zhang et al. (2017) carried out
drop weight tests to study the plastic behavior of circular steel tubes
subjected to transverse impact. The influences of geometrical parame­
ters, indenter types and local indentation on the magnitude of the dent
zone length and the transverse load were investigated and discussed.
In addition, the relationship between transverse force and the
deflection of circular steel tubes under transverse load has also been
analyzed in literature. In the case of transverse impact loading, the local
indentation and the global bending interact, and researchers initially
treated these two modes separately due to the complexity of this inter­
action (Wierzbicki and Suh, 1988). Wierzbicki and Suh (1988) estab­
lished the relationship between transverse force and local indentation
depth of purely dented steel pipes. Soares and Søreide (1983) proposed a
static rigid-plastic method for the analysis of global deflection, taking
into account the influence of finite deflection. Reid (1985) proposed a
definition of specific energy absorbing capacity to evaluate the energy
absorption capacity of a pipe under impact load. For a component under
axial compression, some researchers (Reddy and Wall, 1988; Güden and
Kavi, 2006) also used the concept of specific energy absorption (SEA).
To study the energy absorption capacity of ultra-light weight cement
composite filled pipe-in-pipe composite structures, Wang et al. (2014)
proposed the concept of Energy Absorption Capacity (EAC) based on
previous studies.
In recent years, more researchers have concerned with the perfor­
mance of complicated tubular members or joints under impact loading.
Odina et al. (2018) discussed finite element modelling undertaken to
evaluate the structural response of a CRA-lined pipeline subjected to
external impact loads and confirmed that liner separation is of minor
importance. Qu et al. (2015) and Qu et al. (2014) conducted drop weight
tests and numerical simulations on tubular-T and K-joints, and the
failure mode and energy conversion relationship were also analyzed
comprehensively. Yang et al. (2009) found in their study of pipe-on-pipe
impact in nuclear power and chemical plants that the impact at a specific

2
X. Gao et al. Ocean Engineering 206 (2020) 107337

Table 1
Test parameters of drop hammer impact test.
1
Specimen Outer pipe Inner pipe End plate Md/kg V0/m⋅s h/m

Do/mm To/mm DI/mm TI/mm B/mm Td/mm

PA1 219 12 – – 300 25 980 14 10

PAB2 219 12 114 9 300 25 980 14 10
PC1 273 12.7 – – 350 25 980 14 10
PDE2 273 11 168.3 11 350 25 980 14 10
PFG2 273 13 168 12 350 25 980 14 10
PH1 325 14 – – 400 25 980 14 10
PHA2-1 325 14 219 12 400 25 980 14 10
PHA2-2 325 14 219 12 400 25 980 14 10

location at the same speed produced most serious damage to the target
Table 2
pipeline. Based on previous investigations on the hollow steel pipes,
Mechanical properties of API 5L X56 pipeline.
Wang et al. (2015) and Wang et al. (2014) studied the lateral impact
behavior of cement filled pipe-in-pipe structures through both experi­ APL 5L X56 Polyurethane Elastomer
mental test and numerical simulation, and they also built a theoretical E (MPa) μ σy (MPa) εy (με) ρ (kg/ μp σP (MPa) EP (MPa)
method for predicting the impact response of the cement composite m3)
filled pipes. 208000 0.3 405 1947 100 0.3 0.7 15
Compared with single-layer pipelines, very few studies on full-scale
pipe-in-pipes under transverse impact have been conducted experi­
mentally. Zheng et al., 2012, Zheng et al., 2013) conducted both
experimental and numerical investigations on the overtrawlability of the
pipe-in-pipes. It starts with the quasi-static indentation tests and the
impact tests, which reveal the mechanical behavior of pipe-in-pipes
under indentation. In addition, the author demonstrated that
quasi-static analysis can replace dynamic analysis to some extent, and
quasi-static process is similar to impact response results. Sun et al.
(2019), based on the virtual working principle, proposed a purely
theoretical model for predicting the indentation of pipe-in-pipe struc­
tures, and they further studied the behavior of pipe-in-pipes. At the same
time, parametric analyses on effects of yield strength ratio, wall thick­
ness ratio and outside diameter ratio are conducted. Therefore, impact
tests on full-scale API 5L X56 submarine pipe-in-pipes are carried out in
this study. For comparison, single-layer submarine pipes with same di­
mensions and same materials of the outer pipe in pipe-in-pipes are
tested. The contribution of the inner pipe in pipe-in-pipes to the impact
resistance is analyzed from the aspects of the impact force-time history
curve, the displacement-time history curve, the strain-time history
curve, the impact-displacement curve and energy dissipation relation.
Additionally, a cross-section deformation rate (R) is proposed, and the Fig. 2. Engineering stress-strain curves of polyurethane elastomer were tested
local indentation length of the specimen is divided into three zones by Guo (2014).
based on experimental observation and numerical simulation. Through
such tests, the response and failure mechanism of pipe-in-pipes under tested by referring to API SPEC 5L, 2012. The specimens are classified
impact load can be understood thoroughly. into three groups according to their nominal outer diameters (DI). The
detailed information of the specimens is presented in Table 1. It is worth
2. Impact test pointing out that the specimen number is composed of letters and
numbers: “P” denotes “pipeline”; the second letter denotes the section
2.1. Specimens size of the outer tube; the third letter denotes the section size of the inner
tube, and this letter does not exist in a single-layer pipe specimen; the
In the impact tests, both pipe-in-pipe and single-layer pipe specimens first number after the last letter represents the type of pipeline: “1”
are fabricated from API 5L X56 submarine pipelines, which are used stands for single-layer pipe; “2” stands for pipe-in-pipe. The second letter
widely in Bohai sea of China. A total of 8 specimens were prepared and

Fig. 1. Pipe-in-pipe specimens.

3
X. Gao et al. Ocean Engineering 206 (2020) 107337

Fig. 3. Drop hammer impact system.

represents different section sizes as follows: A: 219 � 12, B: 114 � 9, C: properties of polyurethane elastomer. Its mechanical properties
273 � 12.7, D: 273 � 11, E: 168.3 � 11, F: 273 � 13, G: 325 � 14 (unit: (Young’s modulus Ep, Poisson’s ratio μp, yield stress σP and density ρ) are
mm). Impact tests were performed on two identical specimens for PHA2 shown in Table 2 and the stress-strain curves are shown in Fig. 2.
to verify the stability of the results. The specimens were made of API 5L
X56 seamless steel pipe, with a length of 2000 mm and two end plates. A
2.2. Drop hammer impact tests
length of 2000 mm is designed for the specimens because of the space
limitation of the test rig. The configuration of a pipe-in-pipe specimen is
The drop hammer impact tests were carried out in a specially
illustrated in Fig. 1.
designed device mainly including guide rails, indenter, weight blocks,
Tensile tests were conducted on coupons to measure the mechanical
lifting device, control system and data acquisition system, as shown in
properties of API 5L X56 steel material. The coupons were cut from the
Fig. 3(a). Meanwhile, the device is equipped with a data acquisition
same pipes of the specimens, and the fabrication of the coupons satisfied
system produced by NI (National Instruments) to collect high-speed
the requirements of API SPEC 5L, 2012. Some mechanical properties
analog voltage signal, acceleration signal and strain signal synchro­
measured from the experimental tests, including Young’s modulus E,
nously, and the voltage signal measured in this test is 5v. The impact
Poisson’s ratio μ, yield stress σy and corresponding yield strain εy, are
force-time history curves, displacement-time history curves and strain-
listed in Table 2. The filler of the pipe-in-pipe is polyurethane elastomer.
time history curves of the pipelines were monitored and obtained
Guo (2014) has conducted an experimental study on the compression
from the captured signals in the impact tests. A wedge-shaped indenter

Fig. 4. Placement of displacement transducers and strain gauges.

4
X. Gao et al.
Fig. 5. Failure process of PC1 under transverse impact.
was employed to avoid suspension between indenter and pipe wall
during impact. The size of indenter is shown in Fig. 3(b). The drop
hammer is composed of indenter and weight blocks, and the impact
energy is changed by adjusting the number of weight blocks. In the drop
hammer impact tests, the maximum weight of the drop hammer is 950
kg (a total of 11 wt blocks), and the drop height is 10m. The test pa­
rameters are given in Table 1. A force sensor is installed inside the
hammer head, and the signal of the force sensor is input to the NI in­
strument for signal collection through a dynamic strainometer, and the
dynamic force time-history curve of the whole impact process is ob­
tained through the conversion of electric signal-force relationship.
Photron SA-X2 high-speed camera was used to record the dynamic
impact process, and the shooting frame rate was 10000fps.
A special device as shown in Fig. 3(b) is designed to meet the re­
quirements of drop hammer impact tests. Three-point bending scheme is
used to clamp the specimen. Considering the realistic pipe length on the
seabed is much longer than 2000 mm, the two ends of the pipe speci­
mens are designed to be free in rotation so as to eliminate the boundary
constraints to the specimens. To implement such idea, the clamping of
the tested pipe is designed as follows: one end of the forceps is pressed
against the specimen with a nut so that only rotation is allowed. At the
other end, a gap of 1 mm between the collet and the tube wall is
designed to release the constraint to axial slide. Through such design,
the lateral displacement of the pipeline can be simulated consistently
with actual situation as far as possible. The displacement at the point
Pmid was monitored using high-precision resistive displacement trans­
ducer. Due to the high impact speed, displacement transducers were
arranged at points Pleft and Pright on both sides of the pipeline at the mid-
span, as shown in Fig. 4. The magnitude of the displacement transducers
at points Pleft and Pright is 300 mm, and the magnitude of the displace­
ment transducer at point Pmid is 250 mm BFH120-3AA strain gauges
were used to measure the dynamic strain curves during the tests. A total
of 10 strain gauges were arranged along the axial direction of the pipe.
The placement and the directions of the strain gauges are illustrated in
Fig. 4. The locations of the placed strain gauges are selected on the
bottom surface of the pipe at the mid-span (D-M-W and D-M-E) and at a
distance of 400 mm from the mid-span (U–W, M-L-W, D-W, M-R-W, U-E,
5
Ocean Engineering 206 (2020) 107337
M-L-E, M-R-E and D-E).
3. Test results and discussion
3.1. Failure modes
A total of 8 specimens subjected to transverse impact were tested by
using drop hammer machine. During the test, the weight, the impact
speed and the height of the drop hammer were kept unchanged for
different specimens. The test results reveal that all specimens experience
similar deformation process, and a coupling of local indentation and
overall bending deformation occurs in the tubes, forming the failure
mechanism of plastic hinge. With the increase of pipe diameter and wall
thickness, the degree of local indentation and global bending decreases.
For brevity, PC1 is selected to analyze the deformation process in details.
Before the drop hammer impact test, the high-speed camera was in
the state to be triggered. At the beginning of the impact test, the drop
hammer fell freely, and the laser probe measured two velocity signals at
the distance of 100 mm and 50 mm from the sample, from which the
impact velocity and acceleration were calculated. At the same time, the
speed signal conditioner gives a signal to trigger high-speed camera
shooting. Fig. 5 demonstrates the deformation process of PC1 specimen
under transverse impact load taken by high-speed camera. At the initial
contact of the indenter with the pipeline specimen (0–12.5 ms), local
indentation appears at the contact location. Simultaneously, the central
axis of the steel tube remains horizontal and the bottom of the specimen
(Pmid) has almost no deflection, as shown in Fig. 5(a). With the increase
of local indentation, plastic hinge (12.5–16.4 ms) formed at the impact
position. Axial sliding began to occur, and a coupling of local indenta­
tion and global bending deformation is observed as shown in Fig. 5(b).
At this stage, local indentation is still the main failure mode of the
pipeline. The displacement transducer (at point Pmid) at the bottom
started to monitor displacement value at 12.5 ms, and the center axis
was offset. Subsequently (16.4–33.1 ms), the size of the plastic dent
zones was further enlarged and the local sunken deformation deepened
gradually. At this stage, both the deflection of the specimen and the local
sunken deformation reached maximum value as shown in Fig. 5(c). The
X. Gao et al.
Fig. 6. Impact force - time history curve of PC1.
drop hammer rebounded reversely from the pipe after the global
bending deformation reached the maximum as shown in Fig. 5(d). At
37.8 ms, the indenter separated from the specimen, and the elastic
deformation was further recovered. The first impact process was
completed, and the failure mechanism of plastic hinge with a coupling of
local indentation and global bending deformation was finally formed, as
shown in Fig. 5(e)-5(f). Fig. 5(g) is the shape of local indentation of the
specimen after test. It is consistent with the shape of wedge-shaped
indenter. Therefore, the shape of the dent in the pipe is closely related
to the shape of the indenter. This observation is also consistent with the
conclusion presented by Zhang et al. (2017).
3.2. Time history of impact force
For single-layer pipe specimen, the impact force - time history curve
of PC1, as shown in Fig. 6, is selected for analysis. Three stages are
classified in the curves. In stage I, the impact force rises sharply to a
certain value in a very short time as soon as the indenter contacts the
upper surface of the specimen. The axial sliding of the pipe gives rise to a
sudden drop in impact force due to boundary conditions. After sliding to
a certain extent, the impact force continues to increase the peak impact
force. Stage I is referred to a vibration stage. After the impact force
experiences a short period of rapid fluctuations, it begins to keep stable
and it is now in stage II (a stable stage). In reality, there will be frictional
damping due to contact between the pipe and the seabed and added
mass by the presence of water in the pipeline exterior environment.
Therefore, the pipeline in service may not experiences a short period of
rapid fluctuations when subjected to lateral impact load. However, such
actual situation can not be simulated accurately because of laboratory
limitation at present. If the water in the pipe is not in a high pressure and
the distance from the sea level to the pipe is not large (i.e., shallow sea),
the effect of the added mass produced by the water both inside the pipe
and the exterior environment is relatively slight. More comprehensive
studies in both experimental tests and finite element simulations by
considering the two factors are necessary to be carried out in future
study. At this stage, the impact force decreases very gradually. The
impact time - history curve tends to be flat. After stage II, the impact
force begins to drop rapidly till to zero, and this period is referred to
stage III (an unloading stage). In stage III, the indenter separates from
the specimen. Because the separation is in a short time, the contact
between the indenter and the specimen disappears very quickly to cause
a sharply decrease of the impact force. The above three stages of the
impact force with time history were also found by other researchers
(Yousuf et al., 2013; Remennikov et al., 2011).
The impact force - time history curves of pipe-in-pipe specimens
under transverse impact, although they can be still classified into three
6
Ocean Engineering 206 (2020) 107337
Fig. 7. Transverse impact force - time history curves.
similar stages like single-layer pipe specimen, are different in peak
impact force and impact duration as shown in Fig. 7. PHA2-1 and PHA2-
2 are two identical pipe-in-pipe specimens. The impact - time history
curves of the two specimens are consistent to indicate that accurate
results can be obtained from the drop hammer impact test for specimens
with same dimensions and materials. Interestingly, the impact force -
time history curves of the pipe-in-pipe specimens exhibit a short-term
stable fluctuation at a certain value of impact force before the end of
stage I (similar to the curves of corresponding curves of single-layer pipe
specimens) and then increase to a higher peak impact force (due to the
contribution of the inner pipe). The single-layer pipe specimen PA1 and
the outer diameter of the pipe-in-pipe specimen PAB2 are same. From
the comparison of the impact force - time history curve for the two
specimens, it is found that PAB2 has larger impact peak value, higher
platform segment and shorter impact time compared to PA1. In another
word, the resistance to impact for the pipe-in-pipe is much better. Such
improvement of resistance to impact is definitely attributed to the inner
pipe in providing additional stiffness. It is noted here that the pipe-in-
pipe specimens were designed without centralizers. When centralizers
are placed between the inner and the outer pipes, they may also provide
contributions to the impact resistance if the indenter position is just on
the centralizers or very close to the locations of the centralizers. Because
the contributions of centralizers are not considered in the pipe-in-pipe
specimens, the resistance performance is underestimated and the eval­
uation is relatively conservative and safer compared to those of the pipe-
in-pipes with centralizers. For single-layer pipes, including specimens
PA1, PC1 and PH1 with different diameters and wall thicknesses (such
values increase in such list order), the impact force-time history curves
are also different. As seen from Fig. 7, the peak impact force is increased,
the phase II is shortened, and the impact resistance is improved
sequentially in the order of PA1, PC1 and PH1. Because the thickness
and diameter increase, the stiffness is improved and the global bending
of the single-layer specimen under the transverse impact is reduced and
produces smaller deflection. A smaller deflection reduces axial sliding of
the pipe, eventually leading to the shortening of the phase II. For pipe-in-
pipe specimens PFG2, PHA2-1 and PHA2-2, similar conclusion can be
drawn. Compared with single-layer pipe specimens, the peak impact
force of the pipe-in-pipe specimens is obviously increased. Similarly, it is
also found that the fluctuation section is shortened due to the contri­
bution of the inner tube to the flexural stiffness of the pipes in both
global bending of the tube and local bending of the tube wall.
3.3. Time history of global displacement (deflection)
Fig. 8 illustrates the global displacement - time history curves of
different specimens under same transverse impact energy. The global
displacement includes the deflection of the bottom surface of the pipe at
X. Gao et al. Ocean Engineering 206 (2020) 107337

Fig. 8. Global displacement - time history curves (S-t).

Fig. 9. Local indentation.

the mid-span (displacement at point Pmid) as shown in Fig. 8(a) and the
transverse displacement at sides of the pipe at the mid-span (the average
displacement at Pleft and Pright) as shown in Fig. 8(b). It is noted here that
the instantaneous impact force during the drop hammer test caused the
displacement transducers at the point Pmid of PDE2 and PH1 to fall off.
Therefore, the maximum deflections at the bottom surface of the two
specimens at the mid-span are not detected.
The global displacement - time history curves of the 8 specimens at
both the bottom surface and the two sides of the pipe have similar trends
including steeply rising phase, elastic recovery stage and final defor­
mation stage. For brevity, the deflection as shown in Fig. 8(a) is selected
for analysis. All the curves increase steadily to a maximum value
(impacting process), and then they experience a drop stage (separating
process and elastic recovery stage) a stable value. When the deflection
drops to a minimum value (absolute separation time), it experiences
several fluctuations (vibration process) and finally it tends to be an
unchanged value (residual deflection). The global displacement – time
history curves of PA1 (single-layer pipe) and PAB2 (corresponding pipe-
in-pipe) are used to compare the difference of resistance to impact. The
maximum deflection of PAB2 is much smaller than that of PA1 to assume
a higher capacity to resist impact loading. The separation between the
indenter and the pipe of PAB2 is faster to show that the stiffness of the
pipe-in-pipe is larger due to the contribution of the inner pipe.
3.4. Local indentation
In the impact test, the global deformation at the bottom surface of the
specimens at the mid-span, SG, and the transverse local displacement at
the impacting location, ST, were both measured by displacement trans­
ducers, as shown in Fig. 9(a). After the drop hammer impact tests, some
cross-section parameters of the impact specimen were characterized by
the ideal deformation section proposed by Zhang et al. (2017). Fig. 9
shows the definitions of the cross-section parameters of a pipe after
impact test, and the parameters include SG and ST as well the maximum

Table 3
The data of the drop hammer lateral impact tests.
Specimen Sleft Sright Ssid Pms (kN) SG, max Pmm SG ST SL Dmax Dmax/ Dmin Dmin/
(mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (kN) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) Do (mm) Do

PA1 197.3 198.8 198.1 355.7 158.2 356.1 145 265.4 120.4 272.6 1.24 99.3 0.45
PAB2 138.6 137.4 138 508 112.9 506.2 97.5 182.4 84.9 254.8 1.16 134.6 0.61
PC1 72.1 70.3 71.2 761.3 51 836.6 41.3 145.4 104.1 311.3 1.14 168.8 0.62
PDE2 74.2 72.3 73.3 756.6 – – – 126.3 – 307.1 1.12 178.1 0.65
PFG2 47.3 45.9 46.6 1206.1 33.6 1199.2 22.7 86.5 63.8 289.5 1.06 173.5 0.64
PH1 49.8 47.9 48.9 814.4 – – – 113.8 – 361.6 1.11 216.6 0.67
PHA2-1 32.5 30 31.3 1261 18.1 1255.1 12.1 97.5 85.4 347.6 1.07 239.5 0.74
PHA2-2 32.6 30.4 31.5 1218.6 19.2 1203.8 11.2 95.04 83.84 346.7 1.07 241.2 0.74

7
X. Gao et al. Ocean Engineering 206 (2020) 107337

Fig. 10. Strain-time history curves.

diameter, Dmax, and minimum diameter, Dmin, of the deformed Table 3 summarizes the cross-section parameters of the specimens
cross-section. The local dent, SL, is calculated from the following after impact tests. Eq. (1) defines the change of the outer diameter of the
equation cross-section at the mid-span. The length of the local dent is defined as
the straight-line distance between the nearest two points that does not
SL¼ ST - SG (1)

8
X. Gao et al. Ocean Engineering 206 (2020) 107337

Table 4
Strain and average strain rate at different positions.
Model ID D-M-W U–W M-L-W D-W
6 6 6 6
εmax /10 t/ms ε_ /s 1 εmax /10 t/ms ε_ /s 1 εmax /10 t/ms ε_ /s 1 εmax /10 t/ms ε_ /s 1

PA1 – – – 2015 78.01 0.026 2008 47.83 0.042 3143 54.62 0.058
PAB2 – – – 1605 62.96 0.025 1623 43.78 0.037 2870 31.09 0.092
PC1 14866 29.99 0.50 2529 39.42 0.064 2885 29.80 0.097 4846 30.02 0.16
PDE2 14755 31.66 0.47 3128 41.48 0.075 2039 29.07 0.070 7657 32.52 0.24
PFG2 10056 24.30 0.41 2249 31.36 0.072 1550 21.54 0.072 4440 17.59 0.25
PH1 6146 29.36 0.21 3846 41.74 0.092 5345 28.10 0.19 4706 29.28 0.16
PHA2-1 6167 23.08 0.27 3236 27.64 0.12 2391 24.39 0.098 4238 22.75 0.19
PHA2-2 4516 22.78 0.2 3868 28.89 0.13 2779 23.75 0.12 3047 22.19 0.14

change along the axial curvature of the pipeline (Rinehart, 2003). To
reflect the extent of the local deformation, Wang et al. (2014) defined
the length of the indentation zone as the position where the indentation
exceeds 1% of the pipe diameter (SL/R0 ¼ 0.01). However, in the actual
test, there is a slight deformation at a distance from the dent. The lengths
identified from the test data are sometimes large and the calculated film
strain is small (Shuai, 2010). In this study, the local dent is divided into
three areas: I, II and III, i.e., the indenter contact area, the transition
area, and the impact area, as shown in Fig. 9(b). The film strain of the
region I is large, and therefore, the length of the indentation corre­
sponding to SL/2 (half of the maximum depth of the indentation) as the
boundary between region I and region II (Shuai, 2010). In this study, the
cross-section deformation rate, R, is proposed to define region II and
region III. The cross-section deformation rate is defined as:
SLP2 SLP1
R¼
y2 y1
where, SLP1 and SLP2 denote the local indentation depth at point P1 and
point P2 respectively, and y1 and y2 represent the distance from point P1
and point P2 to the middle section of the specimen respectively, as
shown in Fig. 9(b).
R refers to the cross-section deformation rate, and it represents the
change of local dent per unit length. The pipe specimen is assumed to
have a significant local dent at R > 0.01. It is noted that the length of the
indentation zone needs to measure the data within a certain length. Due
to the limitation of experimental conditions, numerical simulation will
be used to determine such length in the following sections.
It is found from Table 3 that the single-layer pipe specimens (PA1,
PC1, PH1) form a deeper indentation profile under transverse impact
compared with the pipe-in-pipe specimens with the same external
diameter (PAB2, PDE2, PFG2, PHA2-1, PHA2-2), and Dmax and Dmin
change greatly. For PA1 (Do ¼ 219, t ¼ 12), PC1(Do ¼ 273, t ¼ 12.7) and
PH1(Do ¼ 325, t ¼ 14) with different diameters and wall thickness, the
global deformation and the local indentation of single-layer pipelines
decrease gradually with the increase of pipe diameter and wall thick­
ness. From Fig. 7 and Table 3, it is also found that PC1 (Do ¼ 273, t ¼
12.7) has a much higher impact force during the only action of the outer
tube compared to PDE2 (Do ¼ 273, t ¼ 11), which indicates that the wall
thickness has a great influence on the impact resistance.
3.5. Strain response
The strain - time history curves at different positions on the surface of
the specimens under transverse impact (tensile strain has positive value
and compressive strain has negative value) are plotted in Fig. 10. Due to
large deformation of the specimens under transverse impact load, some
strain gauges are damaged (M-R-W, D-M-W and D-M-E on specimen
PA1, D-M-E and D-M-W on specimen PAB2, D-M-E on specimen PC1).
Strain gauges D-M-E and M-R-W on specimen PA1 peeled off from the
(2) tube surface due to violent vibration of the specimen during the
impacting process. As shown in Fig. 10, the strain of the characteristic
points on the surface of most specimens exceeds the yield strain. Addi­
tionally, the following summaries can be obtained: 1) Except for local
dent areas, the bottom surface of the specimen at the mid-span (D-M-E,
D-M-W, D-W and D-E) deforms firstly and the strain at this location has
largest value. The strains at D-M-E and D-M-W show compressive
deformation at the initial impact stage, and then they change to positive
value assumed as tensile deformation till the tensile strains reach
maximum value. This phenomenon is analyzed with the help of the
impact process of the steel pipe in the tests. At the initial contact of the
indenter with the pipe (at 12.5 ms), local indentation appears at the
contact location. Simultaneously, the central axis of the steel tube re­
mains horizontal. There is no large global bending deformation at this
time. The appearance of the local dent causes a transient elastic
compressive deformation at the bottom of the pipe. In the following
process, the global bending deformation increases gradually, and the
tensile deformation produced by the global bending exceeds the elastic
compressive deformation, finally showing as tensile strain at this loca­
tion. 2) The strain at a distance of 400 mm from the mid-span is

Fig. 11. Comparison of the impact force - deflection curves.

9
X. Gao et al.
analyzed. As shown in Fig. 5(b), the deformation at this position appears
as local dent and global bending at 12.5–16.4 ms. Due to the occurrence
of local dent deformation, strain gauges at U–W and U-E begin to
monitor tensile strain at 14.2 ms. The strains at those points increase
gradually to a maximum value. 3) With further development of local
dent and global bending deformation, the deformation of the cross-
section causes both sides of the pipe (M-L-W, M-L-E, M-R-W and M-R-
E) to exhibit compressive deformation.
Table 4 summarizes the maximum strain and the corresponding
average strain rate to evaluate the effect of impact load on the defor­
mation rate at different locations. The strain - time history curves show
that the deformation of the tube is symmetrical about the mid-span
section in length direction. M-L-W and M-L-E are symmetric positions,
so are M-R-E and M-R-W, D-M-E and D-M-W. Table 4 shows that
measuring point D-M-W (the bottom surface of the specimen at mid-
span) has the largest average strain rate, followed by point D-W, then
points M-L-W and U–W. It indicates that the bottom of the specimen at
the mid-span reaches the final failure state firstly due to maximum
bending moment is located at this cross-section. The strain rate de­
creases gradually from the mid-span to the endplates.
3.6. Impact force - deflection curves
The impact force versus deflection (mean value of displacements at
Pleft and Pright) curves of the specimens under transverse impact are
plotted in Fig. 11. It is noted here that the displacements at the bottom
(mid-span) of specimens PDE2 and PH1 were not measured completely
in the whole impacting process. So the deflection in the curves is rep­
resented by an average of the displacements on both sides of the spec­
imens at the mid-span. The impact force - deflection curves have similar
changing process. At the initial stage of the collision, the impact force
increases rapidly to a local peak value. At this stage, the deflection is
very tiny, which implies that the deformation is mainly dominated by
local indentation as shown in Fig. 5(a). After that, the axial sliding of the
specimens causes the impact force to have a drop. The impact force
continues to increase to the peak impact force after the sliding of the
specimens stops. After the impact force reaches the peak value, the
deflection approaches gradually to the maximum value with the ab­
sorption of the impact energy till the drop hammer stops moving
downward. When the specimens start to rebound due to elastic recovery,
the deflection begins to decrease, and the impact force decreases to zero
rapidly due to the separation between the indenter and the pipe. At the
zero value of the impact force, i.e., complete separation between the
indenter and the pipe, a residual deflection is found, and it is mainly the
global residual deformation.
Comparative analysis was performed on single-layer and pipe-in-
pipe specimens with same outer diameter of 219 mm as shown in
Fig. 11(a). For pipe-in-pipe specimen PAB2, the indenter acts on the
outer pipe firstly in the impact process, and the initial impact force of
PAB2 is almost same as that of PA1. After the deflection is greater than 5
mm, contact between the outer pipe and the inner pipe occurs, and the
inner pipe begins to resist the impact together with the outer pipe. Due
to such collaboration of the two pipes, PAB2 sustains a higher peak
impact force than PA1. Simultaneously, the collaboration between the
outer and the inner pipes also improves the stiffness and reduces the
deformation of the specimens, and it can be observed from Fig. 11(a)
that the residual deflection of PAB2 after impact is much smaller than
the corresponding result of PA1.
The three specimens as shown in Fig. 11(b), PC1, PDE2 and PFG2,
have same outer diameter of 273 mm and different values of thickness.
The thickness values of PC1 and PFG2 are much close (12.7 mm and 13
mm respectively) while PDE2 has a smaller thickness of 11 mm. It is
found from Fig. 11(b) that the initial impact forces of PC1 and PFG2 are
basically the same while the initial impact force of PDE2 is significantly
smaller before a deflection of 5 mm. At this stage, the outer pipe of the
pipe-in-pipe specimens PDE2 and PFG2 does not contact with the inner
10
Ocean Engineering 206 (2020) 107337
pipe, and all the impacting load is sustained by the outer pipe. The
performance of the specimens is only determined by the stiffness of the
outer pipe. Because the diameter and thickness of the single-layer pipe
PC1 are almost same to those of the outer pipe for the pipe-in-pipe
specimen PFG2, the performance of the two specimens is quite
similar. However, PDE2 has a smaller thickness and the outer pipe has a
much lower stiffness compared to the other two specimens, and hence its
performance to impact is weaker. When the outer pipe contacts with the
inner pipe, the contribution of the inner pipe in resisting the impact load
works and the collaboration between the outer and the inner pipes
produce a much higher resistance to impact for specimen PFG2. For
pipe-in-pipe specimen PDE2, its performance of resistance to the impact
load is very close to that of the single-layer specimen PC1. Although the
wall thickness of the outer pipe is smaller than the wall thickness of PC1,
PDE2 can achieve an almost equivalent performance through the
collaboration of the outer and the inner pipes in resisting impact load.
In Fig. 11(c), three specimens (PH1, PHA2-1 and PHA2-2) have same
diameter of 325 mm between the outer pipe of the pipe-in-pipe speci­
mens (PHA2-1 and PHA2-2) and the single-layer pipe specimen (PH1).
PHA2-1 and PHA2-2 have identical geometry and material, and they
experienced same impacting action to verify the consistency of the
tested results. The impact force - deflection curves of the two specimens
in Fig. 11(c) are almost coincident, which indicates that the impact test
can produce stable results for same specimens. Similarly, it can be also
observed from the comparison of the curves that the pipe-in-pipe spec­
imens PHA2-1 and PHA2-2 have much higher resistance to impact
compared to the single-layer pipe specimen PH1 because they can sus­
tain a much higher impact force and have a much smaller residual
deflection after impact. In addition, as mentioned previously, a stable
phase (stage II) can be found in the impact force - deflection curves for
the three specimens under transverse impact. Wang et al. (2013) used
the impact force corresponding to the platform segment (stable phase) in
the impact time-history curves as the impact bearing capacity. Wang
et al. (2014) introduced a post-peak mean force Pm as defined in the
following equation:
R SG
PdS
Pm ¼ S o (3)
SG So
where So denotes the global displacement when the impact force reaches
its maximum value Pmax; P is the impact force, and Pm represents the
equivalent impact force; So is defined as the displacement at the
beginning of the stable phase.
From Eq. (3), the post-peak mean forces of all specimens are calcu­
lated and listed in Table 3 for details.
3.7. Energy dissipation
In the analysis of failure mode and strain - time history curves of the
specimens under transverse impact, it is found that all the specimens
have similar failure mechanism with a failure mode of coupled local
dent and global bending deformation. Plastic hinge is found to be
distributed around the local dent. Such failure mechanism indicates that
the total impact energy is dissipated in two forms, i.e., the energy
absorbed by global bending deformation and the energy consumed by
local dent. In calculating the energy dissipation, the current study ig­
nores the energy dissipated in the following mechanisms: 1) The energy
dissipated by the frictions, including the friction between the specimens
and the clamps, and the friction between the specimens and the indenter
during the impact process; 2) the rebound of the drop weight; 3) the
energy dissipated due to heat and noise during the impact process. Based
on the above assumptions, the total impact energy Ei is calculated easily
from the kinetic energy of the drop weight as follow:
�
Ei ¼ Md V02 2 (4)
X. Gao et al. Ocean Engineering 206 (2020) 107337

Table 5
Summary of energy dissipation.
Specimen Md (kg) Mp (kg) h (mm) V0 (m/s) Ei (J) Eg (J) Es (J) Eg/Ei Es/Ei EAC

PA1 960 157.84 10 14 96040 59966 75051 0.62 0.78 2292.6

PAB2 960 204.45 10 14 96040 58429 72030 0.61 0.75 2575.4
PC1 960 211.13 10 14 96040 39378 54806 0.41 0.57 3128.5
PDE2 960 275.57 10 14 96040 – 52988 – 0.55 2759.4
PFG2 960 307.13 10 14 96040 37643 51496 0.39 0.54 3615.1
PH1 960 277.55 10 14 96040 – 38891 – 0.40 3040.7
PHA2-1 960 400.07 10 14 96040 21156 34606 0.22 0.36 2462.1
PHA2-2 960 400.07 10 14 96040 21120 34524 0.22 0.36 2525.9

Fig. 12. Analysis of Energy dissipation.

where, Md is the mass of the drop hammer, and V0 is the velocity when
the drop hammer contacts the pipe specimen.
The energy dissipated by global bending, Eg, is calculated by inte­
grating the impact force - displacement at the bottom of the specimen at
the mid-span (deflection) curve. Table 5 summarizes the impact energy
Ei of different specimens and the energy dissipated by global deforma­
tion Eg. In addition, since the displacements at bottom surface of some of
the specimens at the mid-span were not collected during the impact
process, the dissipated energy Es calculated by integrating the impact
force - displacement at Pleft is also calculated and it is illustrated in
Fig. 12(a) together with Eg. Fig. 12(b) shows the ratio of the total impact
energy Ei to the energy dissipated by global deformation Eg or Es (Eg/Ei,
Es/Ei). It is found from Fig. 12(a) and Table 5 that pipe-in-pipe speci­
mens have a lower value of Eg due to the presence of the inner tube in
reducing the global deformation compared to single-layer pipelines.
Based on the above assumptions, with the reduction of Eg, the energy
dissipated by local dents Ei increases, and more energy during the
impact is consumed by local dent deformation. Fig. 12(b) demonstrates Fig. 13. FE models.
that, compared to single-layer pipes, pipe-in-pipe specimens have a
lower value of the ratio of Eg/Ei and Es/Ei, and such result also indicates denotes the total weight of the specimen, and ST represents the
that more energy is dissipated by local dent in pipe-in-pipe specimens. displacement of the contact position between the indenter and the
This conclusion is also verified from the results of SG for single-layer pipe specimen. Table 5 lists the energy absorption properties (EAC) for all
and pipe-in-pipe specimens in Table 5. In which it is easily found that SG specimens. The data of the first five specimens (PA1, PAB2, PC1, PDE2,
of pipe-in-pipe specimens is lower than the corresponding one of single- PFG2) show that the energy absorption performance of the pipe-in-pipes
layer pipe specimens. is higher than that of the single-layer pipelines, indicating that the pipe-
EAC is a dimensionless parameter used to reflect the intrinsic energy in-pipes structure has good impact performance. Comparing the EACs of
absorption capacity of a pipe specimen under transverse impact load. Its the last three specimens, it is found that the EAC of the single-layer pipe
definition is listed as follow, and it is used in this study to evaluate the (PH1) is larger than the EAC of the pipe-in-pipe specimens (PHA2-1 and
inherent energy absorption capacity of the pipe specimens: PHA2-2). The main reason for this phenomenon is that both the local
indentation and the global bending deformation of PH1 are small.
Ei
EAC ¼ (5) Compared with the single-layer pipe, the weight of the pipe-in-pipe
Mp ST
specimens play a leading role in the EAC.
where Ei refers to the total energy during the total impact process, Mp

11
X. Gao et al.
Fig. 14. Comparison of residual deformations obtained from and test and FE simulation.
4. Numerical investigation
4.1. Finite element modelling
To investigate the impact resistance of pipe specimens under lateral
impact load in a more comprehensive understanding, finite element (FE)
models of both single-layer pipe and pipe-in-pipe specimens are estab­
lished using the ABAQUS/Explicit module (ABAQUS, 2014). A sche­
matic view of the FE model is shown in Fig. 13.
In the FE modelling, the stress-strain curves of X56 steel obtained
from the tensile tests for the coupons are used to define the material
properties. Richardson and Wisheart (1996) proved that the strain rate
effect is negligible if the initial impact velocity Vo < 10 m/s. During
impact loading, the yield strength and the ultimate strength of steel
material increase with increasing strain rate (Jones, 1997). In this study,
Cowper-Symonds model is used to determine the yield strength of steel
material at different strain rates, and it is calculated in the following
equation:
� pipe and the friction between the pipe and the clamp are considered in
ε_ �1p
σdy ¼ σy 1 þ
D
where σdy refers to the dynamic yield stress of the steel, σ y denotes the
static yield stress of the steel, ε_ represents the strain rate for steel, and D
and p are the material constants. In this study, D and p adopted the
empirical values proposed by Abramowicz and Jones (1984), which
were 6844 s 1 and 3.91 respectively.
The establishment of the FE model is as consistent as possible with
the actual situations in the impact tests, including the main parts such as
the drop hammer, the clamping system, and the spindle. The Crushable
Foam and Crushable Foam Hardening options in the property module of
ABAQUS is used to define the plastic behavior of polyurethane elas­
tomer. The specific material parameters are shown in Table 2. The
contact between the polyurethane elastomer and the steel pipe in the
finite element modelling is simulated through “Tie constraint” in which
it is assumed that no separation occurs between the two interfaces
during the impacting process. Such assumption was verified by Hang
(2012) through experimental study. No peeling was found between the
polyurethane layer and the steel pipe through observation to the cut
section of the specimens after tests. The feasibility of using “Tie
Ocean Engineering 206 (2020) 107337
constraint” in the finite element modelling can be also proved from the
observations to the deformed section of the tested specimens in this
study, as a typical view in Fig. 14(b). Clearly, no separation between the
polyurethane elastomer and the steel pipe was observed in Fig. 14(b),
and the “Tie constraint” is also proved to be suitable. In the meshing
scheme, all the parts are discretized into mesh by using 8-node linear
brick elements with reduced integration (C3D8R). The deformation of
the drop hammer during the test is negligible, and hence the indenter
and the weight blocks are defined as rigid bodies to improve the
computing efficiency. To improve the calculation accuracy and to
consider the computing efficiency, transitional grid technique is used to
refine the contact area between the indenter and the specimen. During
the drop hammer impact experiment, one end of the clamp uses a nut to
press the specimen so that it can only rotate. The other end clamp has a
gap of 1 mm to the pipe wall. The pipeline can slide axially during the
impact process. Therefore, “Tie constraints” were used to define one end
of pipeline and clamp in the FE model, and the other end clamp has a gap
of 1 mm to the pipe wall. Both the friction between the indenter and the
(6) the FE analysis. The contact surface properties are defined as follows:
hard contact is defined in normal direction; Coulomb friction is adopted
in tangential direction, and the friction coefficient is 0.15. Because the
spindle between the supporting frame and the clamping system is
lubricated with oil, the friction between them is negligible. During the
impact process, the pipe specimens undergo bending deformation due to
the transverse impact, which may result in hourglass energy. The
hourglass can be controlled to be within 5% by refining the grid during
the calculation.
4.2. Verification of FE model
To verify the accuracy of the FE models, the numerical results are
benchmarked with the experimental results presented, and the com­
parison is illustrated in Fig. 14. For brevity, single-layer pipe specimen
PH1 and pipe-in-pipe specimen PHA2-1 are selected for analysis. The
failure modes of the two specimens obtained both from experimental
tests and FE simulations are shown in Fig. 14(a) and (b). The FE simu­
lations on the final residual deformations of both single-layer pipe and
pipe-in-pipe agree very well with experimental observations. Even for
12
X. Gao et al. Ocean Engineering 206 (2020) 107337

Fig. 15. Verification on FE results of different curves.

Table 6
Summary of FE results and tested results.
Specimen Pmax (kN) SG, max (mm) SG (mm) Ssid (mm) ST (mm) Dmax (mm) Dmin (mm) EAC

FE FE/ FE FE/ FE FE/ FE FE/ FE FE/ FE FE/ FE FE/ FE FE/

Test Test Test Test Test Test Test Test

PA1 530.1 0.91 169.2 1.07 157.5 1.08 205.2 1.04 267.6 1.01 286.8 1.05 109.3 1.10 2273.8 0.99
PAB2 801.4 1.04 101.5 0.90 91.1 0.93 121.2 0.88 176.7 0.97 261.6 1.03 145.8 1.08 2613.9 1.01
PC1 953.2 1.01 43.5 0.85 36.9 0.89 64.34 0.91 123.1 0.92 334.9 1.08 171.1 1.11 3528.1 1.12
PDE2 919.5 1.01 54.5 – 46.1 – 71 0.97 136.6 1.08 313.3 1.02 191.5 1.07 2619 0.95
PFG2 1380.5 0.98 29.8 0.90 22.6 0.99 40.9 0.89 92.3 1.07 296.6 1.02 216.3 1.03 3332.9 0.92
PH1 905 1.02 25.9 – 20.2 – 43.8 0.90 122.8 1.08 377.7 1.04 228.8 1.06 2817.8 0.93
PHA2 1332 0.99 18.3 0.95 12.93 1.07 29.8 0.95 95.04 0.97 349.9 1.01 257.5 1.06 2488.9 0.99

13
X. Gao et al.
Fig. 16. Comparison of local indentation areas.
the pipe-in-pipe specimen PHA2-1, the contact between the outer pipe
and the inner pipe is also simulated accurately as shown in Fig. 14(b).
The time history curves of displacement and impact force and the
impact force - displacement curves of specimens PH1, PHA2-1 and
PHA2-2 are also compared between FE simulations and experimental
tests as shown in Fig. 15(a)-15(i). Because PHA2-1 and PHA2-2 are
identical pipes, the FE model is named with PHA2. Comparing the
impact force-time history curves of PH1 and PHA2-1, the FE results of
the two pipeline specimens have reasonable consistency with the
experimental results. It is found from a partial enlarged view in Fig. 15
(a) that the impact force - time history curves of the FE model have no
obvious descent stage in the initial stage of the impact while the
experimental results have significant descent stage. The main reason is
that the violent fluctuations in the actual test cause the impact force to
decrease instantaneously, whereas the boundary conditions in the FE
simulation are idealized so that the fluctuation is reduced and there is no
obvious descent stage. The FE model predicts accurately the displace­
ment - time history curves of PH1 and PHA2-1 because the FE results are
basically consistent with the experimental results as shown in Fig. 15(b)
and (c). During the rebound phase, the FE results deviate from the
experimental results, which may be caused by the deviation between the
FE model and the experimental results during the vibration phase. The
predicted impact force - displacement curves and strain-time history
curves by FE simulations are very close to the corresponding experi­
mental results as shown in Fig. 15(d)-15(i). Table 6 summarizes the FE
results and the comparison between FE and test results in manner of a
ratio between them. Although the loads in the tests are not representa­
tive of actual subsea impact due to laboratory limitations, the FE pre­
dictions agree with the experimental results reasonably well. The
accuracy of the presented FE modelling technique is hence verified to be
reliable in assessing the behavior of pipelines under impact load.
4.3. Analysis of the length of local indentation
Since the accuracy of the FE model is verified, it is used to analyze the
length of the local indentation for the specimens under transverse
impact. The local indentation of the pipe specimen is divided into three
stages as mentioned previously, and the local indentation area of the
different impact specimens is shown in Fig. 16. The results in Fig. 16(a)
show that the pipe-in-pipe specimen PAB2 has a much smaller value of
both depth and length of the local indentation compared to the single-
layer pipe PA1. Similar conclusions can be drawn for the specimens
PC1, PDE2, and PFG2 in Fig. 16(b) and for the specimens (PH1, PHA2) in
Fig. 16(c). Additionally, it is also found from Fig. 16 that PA1 and PAB2
begin to show significant local indentation at a distance of 477 mm and
400 mm from the mid-span, and PC1, PCD2 and PFG2 begin to show
significant local indentation at 625 mm, 562 mm and 500 mm from the
mid-span, whereas for PH1 and PHA2, such distance is about 740 mm
and 598 mm from the mid-span. The boundary of regions II (R > 0.01)
and III (R < 0.01) is classified according to a critical value of local
deformation rate, i.e., R ¼ 0.01. As seen in Fig. 16, the value of SL/R0 is
14
Ocean Engineering 206 (2020) 107337
very close to be 0 when R < 0.01 (Region III), and it represents a very
slight local indentation. When R > 0.01, the value of SL/R0 increases
quickly, which indicates the local indentation has a significant increase.
Therefore, R ¼ 0.01 is used to classify regions II and III, and it represents
an index of local deformation rate. Both the diameter and the wall
thickness increase from the specimens in Fig. 16(a) to the specimens in
Fig. 16(c). Such phenomenon may be due to the following reason: with
increase of the radius and wall thickness of the pipes, the global bending
deformation of the specimens decreases gradually, and local indentation
becomes larger and its area expands.
5. Conclusions
The impact resistance of the pipe-in-pipe specimens under transverse
impact load is studied through both experimental tests and numerical
simulations. From the obtained results, the following conclusions are
drawn:
1) For both single-layer pipes and pipe-in-pipe specimens under impact
load, similar failure mechanism is found in them, which includes a
coupling residual deformation of both local indentation and global
bending. Plastic hinges around the local indentation are all observed
in the two types of pipes after impact.
2) Due to the contribution of the inner pipe, a pipe-in-pipe specimen has
an efficient improvement in resistance to impact compared to a
corresponding single-layer pipe. Such improvement assumes a
higher value of peak impact force, a shorter impacting time and a
smaller residual deformation.
3) A cross-sectional deformation rate R is proposed in this study. The
local indentation is divided into three stages evaluated from two
parameters of R and SL/2: the indenter contact area, the transition
area, and the local dent impact area. Comparing the length and the
depth of the local indentation area, the local indentation range of the
pipe-in-pipe specimen is reduced and hence the impact resistance is
increased due to the existence of the inner tube.
4) The post-peak mean force (Pm) and the Energy Absorption Capacity
(EAC) parameters are also used to evaluate the impact resistance.
The results show that the energy absorption performance of the pipe-
in-pipe specimen is higher than that of the single-layer pipe spec­
imen, indicating that the pipe-in-pipe system has better impact
performance.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Xudong Gao: Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation,
X. Gao et al.
Validation, Resources, Visualization, Writing - original draft. Yongbo
Shao: Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision, Writing - review &
editing. Liyuan Xie: Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation,
Validation. Dongping Yang: Conceptualization, Methodology.
Acknowledgement
This work is supported by the Scientific Innovation Group for Youths
of Sichuan Province under Grant No. 2019JDTD0017 of China, and such
support is appreciated greatly by the authors.
References
ABAQUS, 2014. ABAQUS 6.14, Abaqus Analysis User’s Guide, Version 6.14. HKSHibbitt,
Karlsson & Sorensen Inc., Pawtucket.
Abramowicz, W., Jones, N., 1984. Dynamic axial crushing of square tubes. Int. J. Impact
Eng. 2 (2), 179–208. https://doi.org/10.1016/0734-743X(84)90005-8.
Aljaroudi, A., Khan, F., Akinturk, A., Haddara, M., Thodi, P., 2015. Risk assessment of
offshore crude oil pipeline failure. J. Loss. Prevent. Proc. 37, 101–109. https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.jlp.2015.07.004.
API SPEC 5L, 2012. Specification for Line Pipe. American Petroleum Institute,
Washington.
Chen, K., Shen, W.Q., 1998. Further experimental study on the failure of fully clamped
steel pipes. Int. J. Impact Eng. 21 (3), 177–202. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0734-
743X(97)00083-3.
Güden, M., Kavi, H., 2006. Quasi-static axial compression behavior of constraint
hexagonal and square-packed empty and aluminum foam-filled aluminum multi-
tubes. Thin-Walled Struct. 44 (7), 739–750. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
tws.2006.07.003.
Guo, D., 2014. Indentation Behavior of Sandwich Beams with Polymeric Foams. Master
Thesis: 2014. Xi’an Jiaotong University, China (in Chinese).
Hang, Z.G., 2012. Study on Mechanical Property of Polyurethane Filled Double Skin Steel
Tubular Members. Master Thesis: 2012. Jiangsu University of Science and
Technology, China (in Chinese).
Jones, N., 1997. Structural Impact, first ed. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Jones, N., Birch, R.S., 1997. Influence of internal pressure on the impact behavior of steel
pipelines. J. Pressure Vessel Technol. 119 (1), 17. https://doi.org/10.1115/
1.2842260.
Jones, N., Shen, W.Q., 1992. A theoretical study of the lateral impact of fully clamped
pipelines. P. I. Mech. Eng. E-J Pro. 206, 129–146. https://doi.org/10.1243/PIME_
PROC_1992_206_208_02.
Jones, N., Birch, S.E., Birch, R.S., Zhu, L., Brown, M., 1992. An experimental study on the
lateral impact of fully clamped mild steel pipes. P. I. Mech. Eng. E-J Pro. 206 (2),
111–127. https://doi.org/10.1243/PIME_PROC_1992_206_207_02.
Karampour, H., Alrsai, M., Albermani, F., Guan, H., Jeng, D.S., 2017. Propagation
buckling in subsea pipe-in-pipe systems. J. Eng. Mech. 143 (9), 04017113 https://
doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)EM.1943-7889.0001337.
Li, W., Gu, Y.Z., Han, L.H., Zhao, X.M., Wang, R., Nassirnia, M., et al., 2019. Behaviour of
ultra-high strength steel hollow tubes subjected to low velocity lateral impact:
experiment and finite element analysis. Thin-Walled Struct. 134, 524–536. https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.tws.2018.10.026.
Odina, L., Hardjanto, F., Walker, A., 2018. Effects of impact loads on CRA-Lined
pipelines. Ocean. Eng. 166, 117–134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
oceaneng.2018.08.014.
Ong, L.S., Lu, G., 1996. Collapse of tubular beams loaded by a wedge-shaped indenter.
Exp. Mech. 36 (4), 374–378. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02328581.
Pilkey, A.K., Lambert, S.B., Plumtree, A.K., 1995. Stress corrosion cracking of X-60 line
pipe steel in a carbonate-bicarbonate solution. Corrosion 51, 91–96. https://doi.org/
10.5006/1.3293588.
Qu, H., Huo, J.S., Xu, C., Fu, F., 2014. Numerical studies on dynamic behavior of tubular
T-joint subjected to impact loading. Int. J. Impact Eng. 67, 12–26. https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.ijimpeng.2014.01.002.
Qu, H., Hu, Y.F., Huo, J.S., Liu, Y.Z., Jiang, Y., 2015. Experimental study on tubular K-
joints under impact loadings. J. Constr. Steel Res. 112, 22–29. https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.jcsr.2015.04.009.
Reddy, T.Y., Wall, R.J., 1988. Axial compression of foam-filled thin-walled circular
tubes. Int. J. Impact Eng. 7 (2), 151–166. https://doi.org/10.1016/0734-743X(88)
90023-1.
15
Ocean Engineering 206 (2020) 107337
Reid, S.R., 1985. Metal tubes as impact energy absorbers. In: Reid, S.R. (Ed.), Metal
Forming and Impact Mechanics (William Johnson Commemorative Volume).
Pergamon, Oxford, pp. 249–269. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-031679-
6.50022-9.
Remennikov, A.M., Kong, S.Y., Uy, B., 2011. The response of foam and concrete-filled
square steel tubes under low-velocity impact loading. J. Perform. Constr. Facil. 25
(5), 373–381. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CF.1943-5509.0000175.
Richardson, M.O.W., Wisheart, M.J., 1996. Review of low-velocity impact properties of
composite materials. Compos. Part: A-Appl. S. 27A (12), 1123–1131. https://doi.
org/10.1016/1359-835X(96)00074-7.
Rinehart, A.J., 2003. Effects of Localized Geometric Imperfections on the Stress Behavior
of Pressurized Cylindrical Shells. Texas A&M University, Texas. Ph.D thesis: 2003.
Shuai, J., 2010. Pipeline Mechanics. Science Press, Beijing (in Chinese).
Soares, C.G., Søreide, T.H., 1983. Plastic analysis of laterally loaded circular tubes.
J. Struct. Eng. 109 (2), 451–467. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9445(1983)
109:2(451).
Sun, C.G., Zheng, M.Z., Soares, C.G., Duan, M.L., Wang, Y., Onuoha, M.D.U., 2019.
Theoretical prediction model for indentation of pipe-in-pipe structures. Appl. Ocean
Res. 2019 (92) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apor.2019.101940, 101940.
Wang, R., Han, L.H., Hou, C.C., 2013. Behavior of concrete filled steel tubular (CFST)
members under lateral impact: experiment and FEA model. J. Constr. Steel Res. 80
(1), 188–201. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcsr.2012.09.003.
Wang, Y., Qian, X.D., Richard Liew, J.Y., Zhang, M.H., 2014. Experimental behavior of
cement filled pipe-in-pipe composite structures under transverse impact. Int. J.
Impact Eng. 72, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijimpeng.2014.05.004.
Wang, Y., Qian, X.D., Richard Liew, J.Y., Zhang, M.H., 2015. Impact of cement composite
filled steel tubes: an experimental, numerical and theoretical treatise. Thin-Walled
Struct. 87, 76–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tws.2014.11.007.
Wierzbicki, T., Suh, M.S., 1988. Indentation of tubes under combined loading. Int. J.
Mech. Sci. 30 (3–4), 229–248. https://doi.org/10.1016/0020-7403(88)90057-4.
Yang, J.L., Lu, G.Y., Yu, T.X., Reid, S.R., 2009. Experimental study and numerical
simulation of pipe-on-pipe impact. Int. J. Impact Eng. 36 (10–11), 1259–1268.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijimpeng.2009.05.001.
Yousuf, M., Uy, B., Tao, Z., Remennikov, A., Richard Liew, J.Y., 2013. Transverse impact
resistance of hollow and concrete filled stainless steel columns. J. Constr. Steel Res.
82, 177–189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcsr.2013.01.005.
Zeinoddini, M., Harding, J.E., Parke, G.A.R., 1998. Effect of impact damage on the
capacity of tubular steel members of offshore structures. Mar. Struct. 11 (4),
141–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0951-8339(98)00009-4.
Zeinoddini, M., Harding, J.E., Parke, G.A.R., 1999. Dynamic behaviour of axially pre-
loaded tubular steel members of offshore structures subjected to impact damage.
Ocean. Eng. 26 (10), 963–978. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0029-8018(98)00036-5.
Zeinoddini, M., Parke, G.A.R., Harding, J.E., 2002. Axially pre-loaded steel tubes
subjected to lateral impacts: an experimental study. Int. J. Impact Eng. 27 (6),
669–690. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0734-743X(01)00157-9.
Zeinoddini, M., Harding, J.E., Parke, G.A.R., 2008a. Axially pre-loaded steel tubes
subjected to lateral impacts (a numerical simulation). Int. J. Impact Eng. 35 (11),
1267–1279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijimpeng.2007.08.002.
Zeinoddini, M., Parke, G.A.R., Harding, J.E., 2008b. Interface forces in laterally impacted
steel tubes. Exp. Mech. 48 (3), 265–280. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11340-007-9111-
3.
Zeinoddini, M., Arabzadeh, H., Ezzati, M., Parke, G.A.R., 2013. Response of submarine
pipelines to impacts from dropped objects: bed flexibility effects. Int. J. Impact Eng.
62, 129–141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijimpeng.2013.06.010.
Zhang, R., Zhi, X.D., Fan, F., 2017. Plastic behavior of circular steel tubes subjected to
low-velocity transverse impact. Int. J. Impact Eng. 114, 1–19. https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.ijimpeng.2017.12.003.
Zhang, X.H., Duan, M.L., Soares, C.G., 2018. Lateral buckling critical force for submarine
pipe-in-pipe pipelines. Appl. Ocean Res. 78, 99–109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
apor.2018.06.007.
Zheng, J.X., Palmer, A., Brunning, P., 2013. Overtrawlability and mechanical damage of
pipe-in-pipe. J. Appl. Mech. T ASME 81 (3), 031006. https://doi.org/10.1115/
1.4024877.
Zheng, J.X., Palmer, A., Lipski, W., Brunning, P., 2012. Impact damage on pipe-in-pipe
systems. In: Proc. Twenty-Second International Offshore and Polar Engineering
Conference. Rhodes, Greece, June 17-22. https://www.onepetro.org/conference
-paper/ISOPE-I-12-283.
Zhi, X.D., Zhang, R., Fan, F., Huang, C., 2018. Experimental study on axially preloaded
circular steel tubes subjected to low-velocity transverse impact. Thin-Walled Struct.
130, 161–175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tws.2018.05.025.