Uplift Behavior of Pipelines Buried at Various Depths in Spatially Varying Clayey Seabed

The behavior of buried offshore pipelines subjected to upheaval buckling has attracted much attention in recent years. Numerous researchers have made great efforts to investigate the influence of different soil cover depth ratios, soil strengths and pipe-soil interfaces on failure mechanisms and bearing capacities during pipeline uplift. However, attention to soil spatial variability has been relatively limited. To address this gap, a random small-strain finite element analysis has been conducted and reported in this paper to evaluate the influence of the random distribution of soil strength on pipe uplift response. The validity of the numerical model was verified by comparison with the results presented in the previous literature. The spatial variation of soil strength was simulated by a random field. The effect of soil variability on the failure mechanism was determined by comparing the displacement contours of each random realization. Probabilistic analyses were performed on the random uplift capacity obtained by a series of Monte Carlo simulations, and the relationship between the failure probability and the safety factor was also determined. The findings of the present work might serve as a reference for the safety designs of pipelines.