Drained Bearing Capacity of Shallowly Embedded Pipelines
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 145, Issue 11
Abstract
This study establishes the drained bearing capacity of pipelines embedded up to one diameter into the seabed subject to combined vertical-horizontal loading. Nonassociated flow finite-element analyses are used to calculate the peak breakout resistance in a frictional Mohr–Coulomb seabed. Critical state friction angles and dilation angles ranging from 25° to 45° and from 0° to 25°, respectively, are considered. Analytical expressions are fitted to the results as a function of embedment depth and soil properties, and compare well with experimental measurements from previous studies. The horizontal bearing capacity at small vertical loads is also predicted well via upper-bound limit analysis using the Davis reduced friction angle that accounts for the peak friction and dilation angles. The analytical relationships presented in this study provide simple predictive tools for estimating the bearing capacity of pipelines on free-drained sandy seabeds. These fill a void in knowledge for pipeline stability and buckling design by providing general relationships between drained strength properties and pipeline bearing capacity. The insight gained through the good comparison with limit analysis techniques also gives confidence in the use of simple numerical techniques to predict the bearing capacity of pipelines for more wide-ranging (i.e., nonflat) seabed topography.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This work was funded by research and development grants from the University of Western Australia (UWA) and the ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hub for Offshore Floating Facilities, which is funded by the Australian Research Council, Woodside Energy, Shell, Bureau Veritas and Lloyds Register (Grant No. IH140100012). The authors also thank Scott Draper for helpful comments during the preparation of this paper.
References
Bolton, M. 1986. “The strength and dilatancy of sands.” Géotechnique 36 (1): 65–78. https://doi.org/10.1680/geot.1986.36.1.65.
Butterfield, R., and G. Gottardi. 1994. “A complete three-dimensional failure envelope for shallow footings on sand.” Géotechnique 44 (1): 181–184. https://doi.org/10.1680/geot.1994.44.1.181.
Davis, E. 1968. “Theories of plasticity and failures of soil masses.” In Soil mechanics, selected topics. London: Butterworths.
Drescher, A., and E. Detournay. 1993. “Limit load in translational failure mechanisms for associative and non-associative materials.” Géotechnique 43 (3): 443–456. https://doi.org/10.1680/geot.1993.43.3.443.
Drucker, D. C. 1953. Coulomb friction, plasticity, and limit loads. Providence, RI: Brown Univ., Division of Applied Mathematics.
Frydman, S., and H. J. Burd. 1997. “Numerical studies of bearing-capacity factor .” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng. 123 (1): 20–29. https://doi.org/10.1061/%28ASCE%291090-0241%281997%29123%3A1%2820%29.
Gao, F.-P., N. Wang, and B. Zhao. 2015. “A general slip-line field solution for the ultimate bearing capacity of a pipeline on drained soils.” Ocean Eng. 104: 405–413. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2015.05.032.
Hill, R. 1950. The mathematical theory of plasticity. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Krabbenhoft, K., M. Karim, A. Lyamin, and S. Sloan. 2012. “Associated computational plasticity schemes for nonassociated frictional materials.” Int. J. Numer. Methods Eng. 90 (9): 1089–1117.
Loukidis, D., T. Chakraborty, and R. Salgado. 2008. “Bearing capacity of strip footings on purely frictional soil under eccentric and inclined loads.” Can. Geotech. J. 45 (6): 768–787. https://doi.org/10.1139/T08-015.
Loukidis, D., and R. Salgado. 2009. “Bearing capacity of strip and circular footings in sand using finite elements.” Comput. Geotech. 36 (5): 871–879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compgeo.2009.01.012.
Lyamin, A., R. Salgado, S. Sloan, and M. Prezzi. 2007. “Two-and three-dimensional bearing capacity of footings in sand.” Géotechnique 57 (8): 647–662. https://doi.org/10.1680/geot.2007.57.8.647.
Lyamin, A., and S. Sloan. 2002a. “Lower bound limit analysis using non-linear programming.” Int. J. Numer. Methods Eng. 55 (5): 573–611. https://doi.org/10.1002/nme.511.
Lyamin, A. V., and S. Sloan. 2002b. “Upper bound limit analysis using linear finite elements and non-linear programming.” Int. J. Numer. Anal. Methods Geomech. 26 (2): 181–216. https://doi.org/10.1002/nag.198.
Lyamin, A. V., S. W. Sloan, K. Krabbenhft, and M. Hjiaj. 2005. “Lower bound limit analysis with adaptive remeshing.” Int. J. Numer. Methods Eng. 63 (14): 1961–1974. https://doi.org/10.1002/nme.1352.
Martin, C. 2003. “New software for rigorous bearing capacity calculations.” In Proc. Int. Conf. on Foundations, 581–592. London: British Geotechnical Association.
Martin, C. 2005. “Exact bearing capacity calculations using the method of characteristics.” In Proc., Int. Associated for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics Turin, 441–450. Turin, Italy: International Associated for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics.
Martin, C., and D. White. 2012. “Limit analysis of the undrained bearing capacity of offshore pipelines.” Géotechnique 62 (9): 847–863. https://doi.org/10.1680/geot.12.OG.016.
Merifield, R. S., D. J. White, and M. F. Randolph. 2009. “Effect of surface heave on response of partially embedded pipelines on clay.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng. 135 (6): 819–829. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0000070.
Michalowski, R. L., and L. Shi. 1995. “Bearing capacity of footings over two-layer foundation soils.” J. Geotech. Eng. 121 (5): 421–428. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9410(1995)121:5(421).
Reissner, H. 1924. “Zum erddruckproblem.” In Proc., 1st Int. Congress for Applied Mechanics. Delft, Netherlands: Technische Boekhandel Waltman B.V.
Roscoe, K. H. 1970. “The influence of strains in soil mechanics.” Géotechnique 20 (2): 129–170. https://doi.org/10.1680/geot.1970.20.2.129.
Sandford, R. J. 2012. “Lateral buckling of high pressure/high temperature on-bottom pipelines.” Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Engineering Science, Univ. of Oxford.
Tom, J., C. O’Loughlin, D. White, A. Haghighi, and A. Maconochie. 2017. “The effect of radial fins on the uplift resistance of buried pipelines.” Géotechnique Lett. 7 (1): 60–67. https://doi.org/10.1680/jgele.16.00142.
Verley, R., and T. Sotberg. 1994. “A soil resistance model for pipelines placed on sandy soils.” J. Offshore Mech. Arct. Eng. 116 (3): 145–153. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.2920143.
Yin, J. H., Y. J. Wang, and A. Selvadurai. 2001. “Influence of nonassociativity on the bearing capacity of a strip footing.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng. 127 (11): 985–989. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)1090-0241(2001)127:11(985).
Zhang, J. 2001. “Geotechnical stability of offshore pipelines in calcareous sand.” Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, Univ. of Western Australia.
Zhang, J., D. P. Stewart, and M. F. Randolph. 2002. “Modeling of shallowly embedded offshore pipelines in calcareous sand.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng. 128 (5): 363–371. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)1090-0241(2002)128:5(363).
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
©2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 24, 2018
Accepted: May 24, 2019
Published online: Aug 28, 2019
Published in print: Nov 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Jan 28, 2020
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.