Finite element analysis of volumetric corrosion defects of oil/gas pipeline

In order to identify the impacts of volumetric corrosion defects on residual strength of oil/gas pipeline, geometric model is established by using SolidWorks and imported to ANSYS software for finite element analysis of oil/gas pipelines with two kinds of volumetric corrosion defects, i.e. pitting corrosion defect and axial groove corrosion defect. The finite element analysis results of the models are evaluated by the calculation method for pipeline defect evaluation RSTRENG 0.85dL, suggesting that errors are within the acceptable range. It proves the feasibility of the introduction of finite element method to analysis the influence of corrosion defect parameter on the residual strength of pipeline. Further, the rule that pipeline failure stress changes with the load and corrosion defect parameters is obtained by calculating, as well as the influence of various parameters on the residual strength of oil/gas pipeline. It turns out that the depth of corrosion defect has the greatest impact on the pipeline's residual strength, followed by the axial length, with the circumferential width least likely and it can be ignored.