Subsea pipelines are usually buried in shallow waters for physical protection. Buried pipelines may experience large lateral displacement in different occasions such as ice gouging, ground movement, significant thermal gradients, and dragging by anchors, fish traps, etc. Backfilling materials are often heavily remoulded under functional and environmental loads and are considerably softer than trenched native ground. This, in turn, affects the failure mechanisms in the surrounding soil and the lateral load-displacement response of the pipeline, consequently. These important considerations are covered less often in the design codes and standards. In this study, the lateral pipeline-backfill-trench interaction was studied through centrifuge testing of sixteen distinct pipe-soil configurations under drained and partially drained conditions. A transparent observation window combined with digital cameras were used for Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) analysis. A range of instruments was installed on the pipeline, backfill, and the trench to obtain the key data and the lateral p-y response of the buried pipe. The influence of several key parameters on the lateral pipeline response was also investigated including backfilling properties, trench geometry, interaction rate effect, and burial depth. The results showed that the failure mechanisms, affected by various pipeline-backfill-trench interaction parameters, have a significant impact on the lateral p-y response and the ultimate soil resistance. The study program provided an in-depth insight into this challenging area and prepared the ground for proposing new models and methodologies for incorporating more realistic conditions for pipeline design subjected to large lateral displacements.
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