... maneuvering on the seafloor. 2-D deflection and 3-D motions of a 5486-m-long (18,000-ft) articulated pipe system and buffer can be controlled with elastic joints, axial dampers and the buffer at the bottom end of the pipe, and further with thrusters installed along the pipe, controlling the lateral deflection...

... are compared through the 3-D nonlinear coupled analyses, using a nonlinear code, 3DNLPIPE, analyzing the effects of axial dampers along the pipe (Cheng and Chung, 1996), both with and without elastic joints, and the axial, as well as bending, stiffness of the elastic joints. It is found that the axial dampers...