This paper describes a development initiative intended to reduce significantly design cost and duration using digitalization. Subsea pipeline design, and in-place studies in particular, is a complex process that is broken down into a systematic sequence of calculations, all connected to a normalized and serialized meta model. The pipeline digital data model is interpreted by a framework that distributes and collects design data to various algorithms and software, thus automating the entire pipeline design workflow down to production of standardized design reports.
The implementation of such an objective requires:
Developing a systematic design methodology, covering industry standards as well as the client's special requirements, under a "one-size-fits-most" process;
Standardizing a data model serving as a meta-model to necessary models and solvers;
Standardizing data format and exchange protocol so that all models are served with required inputs and instructions;
Coding design procedures as unitary applications collecting inputs from and relaying relevant results to the data model;
Integrating applications into a framework that serves inputs and collects outputs from models and calculations to produce final standardized reports.
Design reports with input data, results and methodology are automatically created or updated under various file formats or templates. Engineering productivity is improved drastically and the impact of rework is minimized. The productivity gain is multiplied when the design is still in the early stage and when multiple multi-disciplinary design cycles, including the stakeholder's review, are necessary.
