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An Innovative Approach To Increase

Pipeline Stability on The Seabed
By:

Godwin Eton
PhD Student
School of Civil Engineering
Supervisors:

Prof. Barry Clarke and Dr Terry Cousens

February 2011

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Outline

Offshore pipelines
Behaviours of offshore pipelines
Current industry solutions and the challenges

Research in civil engineering, Leeds

Electro-kinetics principles in geotechnical engineering
Test conducted and some results

Conclusions

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Offshore Pipelines
Petroleum field development using pipelines

Uses

Transportation of oil and gas

Size

Diameter between 0.15m to

1.4m
Average of 0.3m for most
field development

Types

Pipelines Larger diameter

Flowlines Smaller diameter

Flowlines are more unstable

on the seabed

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Behaviour of offshore pipelines

-The Problem

Oil/gas now required

to operate at higher
temperature and
pressure

To ease the flow of oil and gas and

prevent solidification of wax components
Pipeline tries to expand but is restricted by
interface friction between the pipe and the
soft seabed
Pipe is subjected to an axial compressive
load
When this load reaches some critical
value, the pipeline becomes unstable and
is displaced in various directions- vertical
(upheaval buckling) or lateral movements
(lateral buckling) or axial ( pipe walking)
These can jeopardise the structural
integrity of the pipeline and create a
potential hazard for in-service pipelines

Upheaval buckling

Lateral buckling

This expansive behaviour of pipelines remains one of the major issues currently facing many
...large deep water subsea developments prompting need for research into pipe-soil interactions

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Current Industry Solutions

Dig a trench and bury the pipe

Anchor the pipe to a fix

structure

Concrete mattress/rock cover

The above are not only expensive but very difficult in deeper water
Most current and most cost effective

method is to lay the pipe in

Snake lay configuration (SLC)
SLC

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Schematic representation of plan view of typical lateral buckling design

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The Challenge
SLC design allow the pipe to buckle laterally during operation but
depends on a very large extent on the strength of the soil supporting
the pipeline
Of all the design parameters, the soil response causes the greatest
uncertainty in the design due to the extreme dependency/sensitivity
of design solutions to axial and lateral resistance imposed by the soil
Increasing the soil resistance to pipe displacement is imperative to
enhance the effectiveness of snake laying approach

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Research in Civil Engineering, Leeds

None of the existing mitigation methods involved the modification of
ambient soil properties

Research is conducted here to study the deformation mechanism of

soil during pipe displacement as well as using Electrokinetic
processes to increase the strength of seabed soils which support the
offshore pipelines

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Electro-kinetic Principles of Soil Improvement

When a saturated fine soil
is exposed to direct electrical
current by means of
electrodes (anode (+) and
cathode (-), the cations in the
clay surface migrate to the
cathode and drag water with
them causing water flow
toward the cathode
Can result in increasing the
strength of the soil near the
anode
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Electro-kinetic Principles in Geotechnical Engineering

L.Casagrande, 1949 - Control pore water at excavation sites
Bjerrum et al, 1967 - Increase the shear strength of slopes and walls
V. Milligan 1995
- Improve the friction/bearing capacity of piles
Micic et al , 2001
- Increase the capacity of offshore foundations

EK not yet used in pipeline stability

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Test conducted- small-scale and full-scale

Moisture content
Undrained shear strength
Soil pH and electrical properties of the soil
Pull-out test to investigate the resistance of the treated soil to lateral,
axial and vertical displacement of a model pipe section partially
embedded in model soil
Results were compared with control tests and the difference assumed
to be due to EK treatment
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Equipment Design and Methodology for this research

Small-scale test
Before EK test

After EK test

X-section of partially embedded

pipe section

Model pipe section with electrodes in the small-scaled testing tanks

Test Setup for lateral, axial

and vertical pull-out tests

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Equipment Design cont.

Full-scaled test

Full-scaled testing tank No EK

Results from the small-scaled

tests where up-scaled to fit the
large tank to investigate effect of
EK treatment in full-scale.

Full-scaled testing tank during EK tests

Test conducted in both axial

and lateral directions

Electrodes used for full-scaled tests

Pipe section with electrodes used for EK test

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Some results

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4
3

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Some results

Lateral Pulling Test Results from iron

and Aluminium electrodes
Vertical Pulling Test Results from iron,
copper and Aluminium electrodes

8
Changes in Cu between FE and AL
electrodes

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Some results effects of electrode materials

10 Change in CU before and after EK treatment using Al electrodes

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Conclusion
EK process can be employed to increase the stability of subsea pipeline
Iron electrodes appear to be more effective for surface-laid pipes

Aluminium electrode might be better for buried pipes. Research ongoing

in this area
EK has potential applications of strengthening soft soil around subsea
pipelines and thus mitigate against axial walking and lateral buckling of
pipeline
EK Can be extended to stabilise buried pipelines, communication
cables e.g. fibre optic wires as well as other offshore foundations

This will not only reduce cost of installation but also reduce time to
commissioning of these structures
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Thank You For Listening

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