Abstract

Through complementary experimental and numerical efforts, the present paper aims to make a significant contribution to the overall understanding of backfilling processes beneath submarine pipelines. For this purpose, we aim to simplify the experimental backfilling process to an elementary two-stage process: (1) initial scour induced by a pure current, followed by: (2) backfilling induced by pure waves. A steady current is introduced via a re-circulating pump, and is kept constant with a cross-sectional velocity of V = 0.48 m/s until an initial equilibrium scour depth, S0, is reached. Then, the current is stopped and waves (characterized by their Keulegan-Carpener number KC and Shields parameter θ)are introduced to initiate the backfilling process, which is maintained until a new equilibrium scour depth, Sf, is reached. The time at which waves are introduced will be denoted as t = 0. For the backfilling process both regular and irregular waves are used during the experiments. As a demonstration of the initiated two-stage (scour followed by backfilling) process, bed profiles based on video recordings from a case having KC = 9.7 and ϴ = 0.195,are depicted at selected stages in Figure 1. Figure 1(upper left) depicts the current-induced equilibrium scour hole in the near vicinity of the pipe at t = 0, with the profile approximated as the dashed red line. Similarly, Figure 1(upper right) depicts the new equilibrium scour profile (approximated as the full blue line) that has developed under wave-induced backfilling, corresponding to t = 60min. To ease comparison, the dashed red and full bluelines from these plots are additionally combined onto Figure 1 (bottom).The experimental campaign has additionally been complemented with similar numerical simulations (using regular waves), based on a fully-coupled hydrodynamicand morphodynamic CFD model (Jacobsen et al., 2014),extending previous pipeline scour-related applications ofFuhrman et al. (2014) and Larsen et al. (2016). Comparison of the numerical and experimental results demonstrate the ability of the CFD model to reasonably simulate the current-to-wave backfilling process, both interms of the achieved new wave induced equilibriumscour depths as well as the corresponding backfilling timescales. Figure 2 depicts a summary of both experimental and numerical backfilling time scale Tb versus Shields parameter θ. As can be seen, both experimental as well as numerical results match the regression equation:T"sub"b"/sub"=0.3 θ-"sup"5/3 "/sup"quite closely (solid line in Figure 2).

Abstract

Underwater pipelines are vital to the oil industry. Extending the service life of these pipelines is a key issue in improving the sustainability of oil transportation. A geotextile mattress with floating plate (GMFP) is a novel and sustainable countermeasure for scour and erosion control and is herein introduced to protect a partially buried pipeline from local scour in steady currents. A series of experiments was designed to verify the protection capabilities of the GMFP and investigate its parametric effects on protection. The average seepage hydraulic gradient under the pipeline was adopted to depict the protection effects of the GMFP, and was calculated with the pore pressure readings under the pipeline. The test results show that the GMFP is capable of protecting a pipeline from the onset of local scour in a unidirectional current. The average seepage hydraulic gradient below the pipeline decreases remarkably after a GMFP is installed. The average hydraulic gradient shows a descending trend with increased sloping angle &alpha when 0.64 < sin&alpha < 0.77. The hydraulic gradient hits a nadir at sin&alpha = 0.77 and climbs with the increasing sloping angle when sin&alpha > 0.82. The hydraulic gradient ascends when the bottom opening ratio &delta increases from 0.167 to 0.231, due to the decreased intensity of the bottom vortex. The hydraulic gradient drops with a rising plate height, except for a fluctuation at Hp = 0.12 m. An approximate negative correlation is found between the obstruction height of the floating plate and the average hydraulic gradient under the pipeline. This could be partially attributed to the extension and amplification of the bottom vortex on the leeside of the pipeline due to the increased plate obstruction height. Document type: Article