Sustainability Practices and Failure Analysis of Offshore Pipelines

A special issue of Journal of Marine Science and Engineering (ISSN 2077-1312). This special issue belongs to the section "Ocean Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 March 2026) | Viewed by 1480

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
2. School of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Curtin University, Bentley, WA 6102, Australia
Interests: pipelines; failure analysis; energy transition; subsea; cables; flexibles; decommissioning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
1. School of Engineering, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YW, UK
2. Department of Construction Management, Global Banking School, Devonshire Street North, Manchester M12 6JH, UK
3. Institute of Energy Infrastructure, Universiti Tenaga Nasional (The National Energy University), Jalan IKRAM-UNITEN, Kajang 43000, Selangor, Malaysia
Interests: marine hoses; pipeline; marine risers; composite risers; sustainable construction materials; renewable energy; standards; certification; stress/failure analysis; fatigue strength of mooring lines; strength of marine hoses; hydrodynamics; mechanics; offshore structures; sustainability; construction management; project management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Offshore pipelines are critical components of global energy infrastructure, yet their safe and sustainable operation faces mounting challenges from aging assets, harsh environments, and increasing regulatory and environmental expectations. This Special Issue seeks contributions that advance knowledge on sustainability practices and failure analysis of offshore pipelines across the full lifecycle, from design and operation to inspection, maintenance, and decommissioning.

Topics of interest include non-destructive testing (NDT), structural health monitoring, and reliability-based approaches for fault detection and prevention. We also seek studies on material degradation mechanisms such as corrosion, fatigue, and cracking; the role of advanced materials and coatings; and innovative inspection and maintenance technologies. Papers integrating sustainability principles, reducing carbon footprint, extending asset life, or supporting environmentally responsible decommissioning, are particularly encouraged. The Special Issue aims to foster cross-disciplinary insights that enhance resilience, reliability, and sustainability in offshore pipeline systems.

In addition, we particularly welcome contributions that address probability of detection (PoD) and probability of rejection (PoR) analyses, sizing accuracy studies, and reliability frameworks applied to offshore pipeline inspection. These approaches are essential for quantifying inspection performance and ensuring confidence in NDT results.

Dr. Ahmed Reda
Dr. Chiemela Victor Amaechi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • offshore pipelines
  • sustainability
  • failure analysis
  • non-destructive testing (NDT)
  • probability of detection (PoD)
  • sizing accuracy
  • reliability analysis
  • structural health monitoring
  • corrosion
  • fatigue
  • inspection and maintenance
  • materials and coatings

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 1089 KB  
Article
Integration of Maintenance Strategies and Risk-Based Inspection in Offshore Platform Integrity Management
by Marko Jaric, Sanja Petronic, Zagorka Brat, Lazar Jeremic and Dubravka Milovanovic
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2026, 14(7), 618; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse14070618 - 27 Mar 2026
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Abstract
Offshore pipeline systems associated with floating platforms operate under complex environmental and operational conditions that significantly influence their structural integrity and inspection requirements. Limited accessibility, harsh marine environments, and time-dependent degradation mechanisms require inspection planning to be supported by structured decision-making frameworks capable [...] Read more.
Offshore pipeline systems associated with floating platforms operate under complex environmental and operational conditions that significantly influence their structural integrity and inspection requirements. Limited accessibility, harsh marine environments, and time-dependent degradation mechanisms require inspection planning to be supported by structured decision-making frameworks capable of explicitly accounting for both degradation processes and failure consequences. In this study, a Risk-Based Inspection (RBI)-driven integrity assessment is applied to three carbon steel pipeline systems associated with a SPAR offshore platform. The analysis integrates system description, identification of dominant damage mechanisms, and RBI quantification to evaluate probability of failure and consequence-related risk under offshore operating conditions. Internal corrosion is identified as the dominant long-term degradation mechanism for all analyzed pipelines, while external corrosion governs short-term inspection interval definition due to its higher growth rate and sensitivity to insulation characteristics and environmental exposure. Although all pipelines are classified within the same overall qualitative risk category, significant differences in failure probability, risk intensity, and consequence-driven risk behavior are observed, reflecting variations in system configuration, insulation systems, length, and functional role within the offshore production infrastructure. To enable meaningful comparison between pipeline systems of significantly different total lengths, normalized risk indicators per unit length are introduced. These indicators provide additional insight into local risk intensity and spatial risk distribution that are not evident from absolute risk values alone. The results highlight the importance of treating risk as a dynamic quantity rather than a static classification and demonstrate that RBI-based assessment supported by normalized risk metrics can enhance inspection prioritization and maintenance decision-making for SPAR-associated offshore pipeline systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability Practices and Failure Analysis of Offshore Pipelines)
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27 pages, 6656 KB  
Article
A Framework for Predicting Fatigue Crack Initiation Life in Pipelines with Girth Welds
by Jianxing Yu, Yefan Su, Hanxu Tian and Zihang Jin
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2026, 14(6), 569; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse14060569 - 19 Mar 2026
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Abstract
Current studies on fatigue crack initiation in pipelines remain relatively limited. Existing frameworks are confronted with issues including difficulties in crack monitoring and limited consideration of intragranular short-crack propagation. To address these issues, a framework was proposed for predicting fatigue crack initiation life [...] Read more.
Current studies on fatigue crack initiation in pipelines remain relatively limited. Existing frameworks are confronted with issues including difficulties in crack monitoring and limited consideration of intragranular short-crack propagation. To address these issues, a framework was proposed for predicting fatigue crack initiation life in pipelines with girth welds. The proposed framework incorporates full-scale testing, temperature field simulation and microstructural evolution analysis to overcome limitations in crack measurement and microstructural characterization. In addition, intragranular short-crack propagation has been taken into account in the proposed framework. The proposed framework predicts the fatigue crack initiation life through multiscale coupling. Agreement between the prediction and experimental results supports the validity of the proposed framework. The framework provides reliable predictions of fatigue crack initiation life for pipelines with girth welds under high-cycle fatigue (HCF) conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability Practices and Failure Analysis of Offshore Pipelines)
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