• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.9-34
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• 2013

Submarine pipelines encounter significant wave forces in shallow coastal waters due to the action of waves. In order to reduce such forces (also to protect the pipe against anchors and dropped objects) they are buried below the seabed. The wave force variation due to burial depends on the engineering characteristics of the sub soil like hydraulic conductivity and porosity, apart from the design environmental conditions. For a given wave condition, in certain type of soil, the wave force can reduce drastically with increased burial and in certain other type of soil, it may not. It is hence essential to understand how the wave forces vary in soils of different hydraulic conductivity. Based on physical model study, the wave forces on the buried pipeline model is assessed for a wide range of wave conditions, for different burial depths and for four types of cohesion-less soils, covering hydraulic conductivity in the range of 0.286 to 1.84 mm/s. It is found that for all the four soil types, the horizontal wave force reduces with increase in depth of burial, whereas the vertical force is high for half buried condition. Among the soils, well graded one is better for half buried case, since the least vertical force is experienced for this situation. It is found that uniformly graded and low hydraulic conductivity soil attracts the maximum vertical force for half buried case. A case study analysis is carried out and is reported. The results of this study are useful for submarine buried pipeline design.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.383-392
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• 2022

Although pipelines are composed of segmental tubes commonly connected by rubber gasket or push-in joints, current studies mainly simplified pipelines as continuous structures. Effects of joints on three-dimensional deformation mechanisms of existing pipelines due to tunnel excavation are not fully understood. By conducting three-dimensional numerical analyses, effects of pipeline burial depth, tunnel burial depth, volume loss, pipeline stiffness and joint stiffness on bending strain and joint rotation of existing pipelines are explored. By increasing pipeline burial depth or decreasing tunnel cover depth, tunneling-induced pipeline deformations are substantially increased. As tunnel volume loss varies from 0.5% to 3%, the maximum bending strains and joint rotation angles of discontinuous pipelines increase by 1.08 and 9.20 times, respectively. By increasing flexural stiffness of pipe segment, a dramatic increase in the maximum joint rotation angles is observed in discontinuous pipelines. Thus, the safety of existing discontinuous pipelines due to tunnel excavation is controlled by joint rotation rather than bending strain. By increasing joint stiffness ratio from 0.0 (i.e., completely flexible joints) to 1.0 (i.e., continuous pipelines), tunneling-induced maximum pipeline settlements decrease by 22.8%-34.7%. If a jointed pipeline is simplified as a continuous structure, tunneling-induced settlement is thus underestimated, but bending strain is grossly overestimated. Thus, joints should be directly simulated in the analysis of tunnel-soil-pipeline interaction.