CFD-Based Framework for Analysis of Soil–Pipeline Interaction in Reconsolidating Liquefied Sand
Publication: Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Volume 146, Issue 10
Abstract
Submarine buried pipelines interact with shallow soil layers that are often loose and prone to fluidization/liquefaction. Such occurrence is a possible consequence of pore pressure build-up induced by hydrodynamic loading, earthquakes, and/or structural vibrations. When liquefaction is triggered in sand, the soil tends to behave as a viscous solid–fluid mixture of negligible shear strength, possibly unable to constrain pipeline movements. Therefore, pipelines may experience excessive displacement, for instance, in the form of vertical flotation or sinking. To date, there are no well-established methods to predict pipe displacement in the event of liquefaction. To fill such a gap, this work proposes a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) framework enriched with soil mechanics principles. It is shown that the interaction between pipe and liquefied sand can be successfully analyzed via one-phase Bingham fluid modeling of the soil. Postliquefaction enhancement of rheological properties, viscosity, and yield stress can also be accounted for by linking soil–pipe CFD simulations to a separate analysis of the pore pressure dissipation. The proposed approach is thoroughly validated against the results of small-scale pipe flotation and pipe dragging tests from the literature.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. These include the numerical simulation results plotted in the manuscript, numerical code for soil–pipe CFD simulations, and numerical code for the pore pressure dissipation analysis.
Acknowledgments
Input from Omar Zanoli (Rina Consulting) is gratefully acknowledged, as well as the support for numerical simulations provided by former Master of Science students Francesco Bortolotto (AVENTA group) and Kelys Betancur Iglesias (Cathie Associates).
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Published In
Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Volume 146 • Issue 10 • October 2020
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 5, 2020
Accepted: May 26, 2020
Published online: Aug 11, 2020
Published in print: Oct 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Jan 11, 2021
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