Investigation of the Torsional Effects on the Lateral Buckling of a Pipe-Like Beam Resting on the Ground under Axial Compression

International audienceThis paper deals with the lateral buckling behavior of an axially compressed beam interacting with the ground on which it is resting. Such a simple model is supposed to reproduce the same trends as observed during the lateral buckling of offshore pipelines on the seabed. In such practical analyses, the pipe-soil interaction relates the ground to the neutral axis of the pipeline. It is shown that, although such a constraint significantly affects the buckling behavior of the pipeline, it cannot reflect the torsional component of the buckling modes. However, this component is encountered in practice and may further modify the critical loads. Therefore, in this present preliminary study, the interaction between the beam in hand and the surrounding ground is modeled by a connection (a continuous distribution of lateral springs) related to the bottom line of the beam. In this way, the real contact between the soil and the bottom line of a pipe is mimicked, allowing for both flexural and torsional deformations in the buckling response. The problem is investigated analytically using an Euler-Bernoulli beam model with an isotropic linear elastic constitutive law and also an elastic interaction law. Original analytical solutions are derived and compared to numerical results obtained through finite element computations. In comparison with classical solutions (with the connection related to the neutral axis), new types of buckling modes may appear when considering torsional effects, depending on the boundary conditions, with generally much lower critical loads. These first results are certainly representative of some features of the global/localized lateral buckling of offshore pipelines, indicating that torsional effects should also be taken into account in such more comprehensive analyses