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- Title
Pipeline strains in soft clay backfill subject to ice gouging.
- Authors
Bee, Ken; Fredj, Abdelfettah; Comfort, George
- Abstract
Buried offshore pipelines in Arctic environments have to be designed to ensure their integrity under the imposed loads and soil displacements caused by ice gouging of the seafloor. The minimum burial depth below an ice gouge is usually determined for which the pipeline stresses or strains are within acceptable limits. A key uncertainty in the burial depth calculation is the magnitude of the subgouge soil displacements that are applied to calculate the stresses and strains in the pipeline Conservative assumptions regarding subgouge displacements are typically made, leading to potentially excessive burial depths. However, pipelines are relatively robust structures, and the trench backfill is often a disturbed, soft clay. This paper shows, by example, that under a reasonable set of ice gouge, soil, and pipeline parameters, the calculated pipeline strains due to ice gouging in a soft backfill are less than 1% regardless of the magnitude of subgouge displacements. This result suggests a robust, less-conservative, design approach may be developed in many seabed conditions if pipeline strains within the plastic range can be tolerated.
- Subjects
ARCTIC regions; UNDERWATER pipelines; STRAINS &; stresses (Mechanics); SOIL piping (Hydrology); ICE excavation; COLD weather conditions in engineering
- Publication
Journal of Pipeline Engineering, 2011, Vol 10, Issue 2, p87
- ISSN
1753-2116
- Publication type
Article