Physical model tests of lateral pipe–soil interaction including the pipe trajectory in sand

Abstract

Under the conditions of HT-HP, the subsea pipelines transmitting oil and gas in deep sea water often experience lateral buckling due to the accumulation of axial force. The pipe–soil interaction is one of the most important factors during the lateral buckling. In order to understand the pipe–soil interaction deeply, a series of tests about the pipe–soil interaction with different initial pipe embedments and weights were conducted in sand. A PVC pipe segment with an outer diameter of 16 cm is set as the object of this study. The soil resistance and the trajectories of the pipe segment under different conditions were measured during the test process. According to the test data, a formula for predicting the maximal lateral soil resistance was proposed with the help of R software. Moreover, another formula for calculating the lateral displacement reaching the maximal lateral soil resistance was also proposed. The trajectories of the pipe segment under different conditions were set as models, which greatly simplified the calculation of the track of the pipe segment and presented a good way to predict the movement of pipes.