Pipeline Design to Reduce Anchor and Fishing Board Damage

Pipelines can be designed to resist impact from dragging anchors and fishing boards. Marine pipelines are being laid in some of the more adverse areas of the world, including locations in which protection by burial has not been possible. In many of these areas, there have also been problems of dragging anchors and fishing boards hitting the pipelines. An engineering approach has been developed to determine: (1) whether protective burial is how, and (2) if burial is not feasible, how from a technical standpoint, can pipe protection be achieved without anchors cost. This paper describes some of the anchor and fishing boards in common use today, how to assess the risk of damage by them to a pipeline, and various modes of protection that can be used to reduce the risk of damage to an acceptable level. One of the important points in the decision-making aspect is determination of the extent of possible damage in terms of number of occurrences.