Ships and Offshore Structures

Advances in Marine Slender Structures: Design, Analysis and Engineering

With the rapid development of marine resource exploitation, offshore renewable energy and deep-sea engineering, marine multi-layer composite pipes, cables, umbilicals and other slender structures have become critical infrastructures for subsea energy transmission, communication, control and resource transportation. Composed of multiple functional layers with distinct material properties, these structures must withstand extreme hydrostatic pressure, dynamic currents, corrosion, fatigue and impact loads in harsh marine environments. Their performance and reliability directly affect the safety and sustainability of offshore engineering projects.

Against growing global demand for offshore energy and deep-sea exploration, the design, analysis, materials, manufacturing and application of marine multi-layer composite slender structures face unprecedented challenges and opportunities. Key issues include cross-sectional layout optimization, mechanical response characterization under tension, bending, torsion and fatigue, multi-physics coupling effects, interlayer interactions, environmental degradation, as well as advanced materials, intelligent manufacturing, efficient installation, real-time monitoring and long-term maintenance. Innovations in integrated design, high-precision simulation, performance evaluation and intelligent health management are urgently required to improve structural performance, extend service life and reduce operational risks.

This Special Issue: Advances in Marine Slender Structures: Design, Analysis and Engineering, collects cutting-edge research, innovative methodologies and engineering applications covering the full lifecycle of marine multi-layer composite pipe and cable structures. It covers cross-sectional design, mechanical analysis, advanced material development, manufacturing processes, multi-physics coupling analysis, structural integrity assessment, reliability evaluation, intelligent monitoring, fault diagnosis, installation and maintenance technologies, as well as industrial engineering cases. By promoting interdisciplinary cooperation among ocean engineering, structural mechanics, materials science, numerical simulation, electrical engineering and intelligent detection, this Special Issue provides a high-level platform for sharing the latest progress and guiding future directions, so as to support the safe, efficient and sustainable development of marine resources and offshore engineering.

Keywords:

• marine multi-layer composite pipes;
• cables, umbilicals and other slender structures;
• cross-section design;
• mechanical analysis;
• multi-physics coupling;
• material development;
• manufacturing & winding processes;
• structural integrity;
• reliability assessment;
• intelligent monitoring;
• fault diagnosis;
• installation and maintenance;
• full lifecycle engineering applications.

Guest Editor Introduction

Yong Bai is affiliated with the College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University. His main research interests lie in structural engineering, ocean engineering, offshore structures, subsea pipelines and risers, structural safety and risk assessment, as well as interdisciplinary research integrating ocean engineering with intelligent manufacturing, information technology, automation, big data, and artificial intelligence. He has presided over a number of major research and engineering projects, covering ship structures, offshore platform structural design, subsea engineering, structural stability, dynamic positioning, risk analysis, and other related fields. His research achievements include proposing an innovative design theory for the buckling behavior and ultimate bearing capacity of deep-water subsea pipelines, which has broken through traditional design approaches, upgraded relevant industrial design standards, and been widely applied in engineering practice, with an internationally leading level of performance. He has also established close cooperative relationships with government agencies, enterprises, and renowned universities and research institutions both at home and abroad, and is committed to introducing international cutting-edge technologies to promote technological innovation and research breakthroughs in related fields in China.

Website: https://person.zju.edu.cn/en/0010294

Weidong Ruan is affiliated with the College of Civil Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology. His main research interests lie in the dynamic response of marine risers and dynamic cables, the local response and cross-section design of composite flexible pipes, as well as the mechanical behavior and high-precision numerical simulation of deep-water slender marine structures—fields that are crucial to advancing the development of offshore energy exploitation and marine engineering industries. He has presided over a number of key research and engineering projects, covering the dynamic response mechanism of slender marine structures, multi-scale numerical simulation of marine risers, local deformation and buckling failure of subsea pipelines, and other frontier and critical fields in marine structural engineering. His research achievements include systematically revealing the intrinsic dynamic response mechanism of deep-water slender structures, and developing an innovative multi-scale coupled numerical algorithm for slender risers matching beam-solid elements based on the multi-point constraint method. This groundbreaking algorithm has broken through the limitations of traditional numerical simulation technologies, realizing high-precision and efficient simulation of local deformation characteristics in hazardous areas of deep-water risers, and clearly clarifying the plastic development process, local stress distribution law and buckling failure mechanism of pipeline hazardous sections. These achievements have contributed to a progressive understanding of the safety and risk control of deep-water marine structures, providing a technical basis for the design and management of related engineering projects, as well as laying a foundation for ongoing exploration in the technological advancement and innovation within the field of marine engineering.

Website: https://homepage.zjut.edu.cn//rwd/