Skip to content

Captioned video, no audio · on-screen text in English and Spanish

Pipelines & subsea

The pipeline that walks

Pipeline walking and thermal expansion

Duration
2:06
Year
2026

The case

On every hot start-up, a subsea flowline moves 25 mm toward its manifold and does not fully return when it cools. In 20 years and 300 start-ups that is 7.6 m the tie-in spool never asked for. Generic case: 12 in × 15.9 mm X65 flowline, 3 km on sand between a PLET and a manifold, ΔT 80 °C at 15 MPa.

Topics

  • Pipeline walking
  • Thermal expansion
  • Tie-in spools

Basis. Generic synthetic case built for this piece. No client data. Not a design verification.

Need this analysis on your project?

The same method applies to your geometry, your loads and your acceptance criteria.

Discuss a project