Wave Induced Uplift Forces Acting on Half-Buried Submarine Pipeline in Sandy Seabed by Numerical Methods

In this paper, a two dimensional finite element (FEM) and boundary integral Equation methods (BIEM) are applied to determine the uplift forces on half-buried submarine pipeline in a sandy seabed. The main assumptions are potential flow theory for water and linear elastic stress-strain for soil and Darcy's law for pore fluid flow. Dynamic pressures around the pipe and uplift forces were calculated based on BIEM and FEM. Also dynamic uplift forces on pipeline with variable burial depths were calculated. The results of the numerical approach are compared with some analytical formulation based on potential flow theory and experimental data, and it is shown good agreement with both analytical and experimental data. Then, the main parameters of this problem have been discussed in relation to uplift forces.