Wave-Induced Breakout of Half-Buried Marine Pipes

Abstract

An experimental study is conducted in order to identify the major physical processes leading to the breakout of half-buried submarine pipelines from the seafloor under ocean wave action. Both the hydrodynamic loading on the exposed surface of the pipe, as well as the resulting displacement history of the pipe, were recorded and analyzed in order to identify the critical pipe-soil-wave conditions for the detachment of the pipe from the seabed. The paper also examines the balance of the pipe under the combined lift and drag loading from the water wave. An experimental breakout force-time power law is obtained and compared to available theoretical breakout models.