Finite Element Analysis of Thick Beam Attached with Piezoelectric Strips for Offshore Pipeline Application

Abstract

The pipelines are often buried and trenched to protect them from the effects of other marine activities, as well as for the environment's safety. Due to the restriction on pipeline’s ability to move laterally or horizontally, an axial compressive force will be generated. If the axial compressive force is not kept within reasonable bounds, it causes the pipelines to buckle, which then causes them to fail. Piezoceramics are used as actuator and thereby act as a self-monitoring system and can prevent the buckling in pipelines. The present study is intended to understand the actuation capabilities of piezoelectric cantilever beam in preventing the pipeline buckling. Various configurations in placing the piezoelectric patches along the cantilever beam are studied so that optimal design choices can be employed. 2-D analysis of four different cases was studied using ANSYS APDL, firstly a piezoelectric cantilever beam with a single piezoelectric patch kept throughout the length of beam. Second, six patches kept equally spaced throughout the length of the beam. Third, three piezoelectric patches placed equally spaced close to free end of beam, and fourth three piezoelectric patches placed equally spaced adjacent to the fixed end. Aluminium was chosen as the study's substrate, and PZT-5A was chosen as the piezoelectric substance. To analyse the models for piezoelectric effect a potential difference of 10 V is provided across the thickness of the piezoelectric patches. Deflection of the beam was observed in all the cases. To analyse the reverse piezoelectric effect, the displacement obtained in the previous analysis is applied to the respective nodes of the model. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024.