Structural design and analysis of subsea camera shell in deep water

Subsea camera is an important facility for offshore engineering in deepwater, whose shell structure is designed and analyzed with the DBA (Design by Analysis) method for its high external pressure. Both the plastic collapse and buckling collapse analyses are carried out with the finite element method. Several types of analyses which are introduced in ASME BPV Code VIII-2 and EN13445 are done to get the collapse pressure. Elastic and elastic-perfectly plastic material models are used. The allowable pressure loads are compared by adopting the design factors in ASME and EN13445. The results show that the long and short shell buckling theory is not suitable for this kind of shell. ASME limit-load plastic collapse and elastic-plastic buckling collapse methods are recommended for the design. Copyright © 2013 by the International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE).