OFFSHORE NATURAL GAS PIPELINES SUBJECTED TO KINEMATIC DISTRESS

Abstract eng:
Hydrocarbons are undoubtedly the main energy source of the twenty-first century. Over the last decades the increase in energy needs has led to the exploitation of an increasing number of offshore natural gas deposits. Typically, the long distances between natural gas deposits and urban and industrial centres necessitate the use of offshore pipelines. Such pipelines are very important infrastructures and any possible damage can cause serious problems and devastating consequences. Geohazards, such as strong ground motion, active faults, tsunamis, etc, consist crucial threats that an offshore pipeline has to overcome. Especially, kinematic distress caused by active faults or submarine landslides can impose a great risk to offshore pipelines due to the substantial permanent ground deformations. Furthermore, the extended areas that are affected by such phenomena, as well as the adverse submarine soil conditions, are also detrimental factors for the integrity of the pipelines. For this purpose, the aim of this work is to study numerically, utilizing the finite element method, the kinematic distress ) of an offshore natural gas pipeline due to a submarine landslide. Firstly, the developed numerical models are validated using available analytical solutions, and subsequently various parameters that affect the examined problem are investigated. The detailed parametric analysis covers among others, the impacted force on the pipeline, the landslide length, internal pressure levels, slope inclinations and diameter to thickness ratios.

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