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Underground Supported Pipelines
Soft soil conditions often require also for underground pipelines specific piled support constructions.
Expert Design Systems
About us
Professional background
Expert Design Systems bv (EDS) is an independent company, established in 1984, with the objective to materialise and market the specialised know-how of r+k Consulting Engineers bv on basis of software design systems.
Since 2022, the company is part of the BT Engineering Group, as is r+k Consulting Engineers. But all throughout its history, the co-operation and exchange of know-how between Expert Design Systems and r+k Consulting Engineers has been and still is intensive.
Pipeline specialisation
Expert Design Systems is specialised in dedicated software design systems for structural behaviour analysis of low- and high-pressure onshore and offshore pipelines, buried as well as (partly) above ground.
This specialisation is based on the experience and know-how of r+k Consulting Engineers who, over the past 60 years, developed special skills in the behaviour analysis and related strength and stability design and integrity evaluation of such pipelines: high pressure pipelines in general for the oil and gas industry and low pressure pipelines for potable water transport, cooling water lines etc.
Workfields
Pipeline engineering solutions across a wide range of industries and applications.
Medium – Chemical
When transporting certain chemicals through a pipeline, specialised coatings may be required. These coatings and their key parameters can be modeled in PLE to assess their integrity.
Nuclear Plants
Nucleair pipeline conditions characterised by high pressures and large temperature ranges with ultimate safety levels.
Underground Pipeline Schemes
PLE is the tool to assess the stress strain and ovalisation of pipeline schemes with Tees, branches, valves and all kinds of appendages.
Earthquake and Seismic Assessments
Static and dynamic loadings, such as earth quakes and seismic vibrations and displacements.
Especially the combination of dynamic loading and the pipe soil interaction under large displacements can be perfectly assessed in elastic and plastic material behaviour modes by PLE.
Offshore Risers
Pipes connected to offshore risers can include both buried and exposed sections, and are subject to various types of loads, such as waves and currents. PLE is specialised software designed to analyse and combine different loading conditions, making it ideal for offshore riser assessments.
Materialisation of know-how
Expert Design Systems commissioned r+k Consulting Engineers the development of PLE-micro-CAD, a finite element software program for calculating the strength and stability of buried pipelines. It has been available now since 1987 and has been extended with special modules ever since.
The PLE-micro-CAD system is the result of a request from Nederlandse Gasunie in 1965 to design a methodology for the proper analysis of pipelines in soft soils with special emphasis on the non-linear character of the pipe/soil interrelationship. Afterwards, the system was extended in the ’70-ties to include offshore pipelines. For Shell UK Expro many designs have been made or audited with the help of this powerful system or its predecessor, Belipo.
A complete redesign of the system contained in Belipo was started in 1981 to adhere to the new PC based computer use and modern information technology, resulting in 1987 in the new system PLE-micro-CAD.
In 2003, development of the successor Ple4Win started, it first release was in 2008. This Windows-based program proved to be a stable basis for further developments, including tools and wizards for specialised tasks such as a soil modeling wizard, extensive Excel import and export facilities and a 3D visualisation to aid design, checks and result interpretation. Of course new calculation functionality such as Steel-in-Steel and Alternating Yield checks has also been added.
In 2025, the program was rebranded PLE, and maintenance, improvement, development and extension are continuing. Developments are still going on to follow new pipeline design technologies as these are included in new Pipeline Codes like the Dutch NEN 3650, British BS 8010 and CEN. Notwithstanding the application of such new technologies, the PLE system is still very well suited to adhere to the classic ANSI B31 Codes and their derivatives in many other countries.
The PLE software suite may be considered to be a world-leading tool in its field, with the most advanced techniques contained to fulfill requirements of these new Pipeline Codes and needs of the industry.
It has been shown to be of great advantage that all new facilities in the system are initiated on basis of the consultancy work done by r+k and EDS before release to the market.
Many design and integrity analyses based on a variety of internationally used Pipeline Codes have been performed and approved by certification bodies in various countries.
Spread of pipeline know-how
As a result of its marketing efforts and especially through the exhibition of the knowledge and application potentials contained in PLE, the system is now frequently used by others on a license basis. The system has been formally approved by Dutch Authorities, and for instance, Shell Expro UK has approved the system for use on their offshore pipelines.
The circle of user environments includes companies like Gasunie Netherlands, Gaz de France, Fluxys (formerly Distrigaz) and British Gas, but also certification bodies like Stoomwezen – a member of the Lloyd’s Register Group – and the Province of Zuid-Holland.
Application of know-how in specific pipeline projects
Apart from licensing the PLE system as a general tool for pipeline strength and stability integrity analysis, EDS provides tailor-made computer-based solutions for dedicated areas of pipeline analysis based on its 60 years of experience in this discipline.
With respect to special application areas, Expert Design Systems refers to the work on:
- upheaval buckling analysis for offshore and onshore (overbending) pipelines,
- pre-sweep and trenching analysis for offshore pipelines at sand wave locations,
- analysis of suspended pipelines over deep bottom troughs,
- bottom tow and J-tube riser pull-in analysis,
- behaviour analysis of hot (and insulated) pipelines,
- stability analysis of large diameter, low pressure pipelines,
- behaviour analysis of pipelines in soil settlement and mining subsidence areas,
- fatigue analysis of bridge suspended pipelines,
- road- and river crossings, land-fall and horizontally drilled crossing analyses,
- interaction analysis of building structures and attached or supported pipelines,
- analysis of causes and development of repair options for damaged pipelines,
- preparation of documents for pipeline approval by authorities based on various Codes,
- “fit for purpose” evaluation of corroded pipelines based on intelligent pig measurements.
Auditing pipeline and other projects
Based on longstanding experience in this field, EDS is asked by energy and water companies to look in the conceptual design phase at pipe/soil aspects over potential routings, to assist on special design and installation items, often in co-operation with or on request of the engineering contractor or to act as an independent party to audit designs to be approved by the Client or to integrate work done by several parties, each dealing with its own part of the overall design.
As specialists, EDS and r+k are also asked to assist in claim handling and arbitration. Just to give another example, r+k are assigned by the (UN) International Atomic Energy Agency at Vienna to act as specialists on site evaluation for nuclear plants on the subject of “human induced events” with special emphasis on pipeline safety and the potential impact of pipeline incidents on the projected plants.
A similar specialised assistance was provided to the Municipality of Rotterdam for drafting the “Rotterdam Pipeline Rules”, which code is in force now for the heavily industrialised Rotterdam harbour area.