Numerical Assessment of Tight-Fit Sleeve Clamp in the Repair Process of Cracked Submarine Pipelines

The present research addresses the crack arrest in the submarine pipeline under internal pressure, axial force, and bending moment. The main purpose of the research is to consider tight-fit sleeves as a solution to crack arrest. The stress intensity factor criteria are used to describe the crack behavior. It should be noted that the cracks examined here are inclined through-thickness cracks, which the ABAQUS commercial software used to simulate them. It's noteworthy that Mode I fracture is dealt with, and the other fracture modes are omitted. The results show that the tight-fit sleeves, preferentially arrest the inclined cracks; so that the amounts of the stress intensity factors decrease for all the cracks except for the circumferential cracks to the extent that they become closed. As a result, their growth stops in practice; however, it best reduces the stress intensity factors by up to 65.36% at the circumferential cracks, and their amounts remain non-negative. Tight-fit sleeves create a pressurized region around the inclined cracks. This causes that inclined cracks remain closed.