The on-bottom stability design of subsea pipelines and cables is important to ensure safety and reliability but can be challenging to achieve, particularly for renewable energy projects which are preferentially located in high energy metocean environments. Often these conditions lead to the seabed being stripped of all loose sediment, leaving the cables to rest on exposed bedrock where roughness features can be similar in size to the cables. As offshore renewable energy projects progress from concept demonstration to commercial-scale developments, new approaches are needed to capture the relevant physics for small diameter cables on rocky seabeds to reduce the costs and risks of export power transmission and increase operational reliability. These same considerations also apply to the cables and small diameter pipes — such as umbilicals — required by oil and gas projects located on rocky seabeds. Recent experimental testing using the University of Western Australia’s unique Large O-tube has enabled the experimental measurement of hydrodynamic forces on small diameter cables and pipes in proximity to smooth and rough beds. The tested conditions extend well beyond the existing published parameter range including much higher KC conditions together with seabed roughness which is comparable in size to the diameter. The results provide design data of great relevance to the ongoing development of marine renewable and conventional oil and gas projects, especially on rocky seabeds. This paper presents a summary of the existing knowledge on the subject as a preface to preliminary test results and gives tentative conclusions on the likely outcomes from this work.

This paper addresses the selection of an appropriate consolidation coefficient for the analysis of drainage beneath foundations and pipelines in offshore geotechnical design. An emerging trend in the design of subsea infrastructure is the consideration of ‘whole life’ effects — namely the changes in soil properties and geotechnical capacity over the operating life. Seabed pipelines that undergo repeated thermal expansion and contraction cause shearing and consolidation in the underlying soil, leading to significant changes in the available seabed friction. Also, foundations that are either fixed or designed to slide on the seabed, are subjected to intermittent loads interspersed with periods of consolidation. These also cause a change in seabed strength and geotechnical capacity. To assess the time over which these effects occur, and therefore their influence on the response and the reliability of the system, it is necessary to perform consolidation calculations, using an appropriate consolidation coefficient. This paper presents observed operative consolidation coefficients drawn from recent model testing measurements and numerical analyses. It is shown that the consolidation rate can vary by more than an order of magnitude for the same soil profile under different loading conditions, due to the differences in stiffness and permeability. Meanwhile, design parameters are commonly drawn from one-dimensional oedometer compression tests. This compendium of data highlights the potential variation in consolidation coefficient for different loading types and through the ‘whole life’ of infrastructure. A key conclusion is that consolidation effects generally occur faster than is commonly assumed, meaning that changes in strength and stiffness — that are commonly beneficial in design — may be more readily relied on than is done so in current practice.

At OMAE in 2008 the ‘state of the art’ in pipeline on-bottom stability engineering was summarized, providing an overview of the current available knowledge for addressing pipeline stability. The aim of that work was to summarise key aspects of the pipeline stability design process and to include some historical perspective. The paper discusses the advantage and shortfalls of the different design approaches with a view to consolidate understanding, rather than to provide a ready-made solution to a complex design problem [1]. Since that time, a decade of research and further methodology refinement has extended the boundaries of the industry’s knowledge and understanding of the behaviour of subsea pipelines and cables, including geotechnics, hydrodynamics, oceanography and structural response modelling. In particular, progress has been made in: • The response of pipelines to sediment transport and scour; • Understanding the behaviour of small diameter pipelines and cables within wave and current boundary layers; and • The behaviour of cables on rocky seabeds in high energy marine environments. This paper summarises these innovations to enable the application of new paradigms in engineering practice and improved outcomes for initial project capital cost, reliability and operational integrity, as well as better models to predict the long-term behaviour where pipes are decommissioned in-situ. While a relatively widely studied field of engineering, there remain areas of active ongoing research to improve our understanding and ability to model and predict subsea pipeline on-bottom behavior, with a summary of the anticipated future opportunities proposed.

As offshore renewable energy projects progress from concept demonstration to commercial-scale developments there is a need for improved approaches beyond conventional cable engineering design methods that have evolved from larger diameter pipelines for the oil and gas industry. New approaches are needed to capture the relevant physics for small diameter cables on rocky seabeds to reduce the costs and risks of power transmission and increase operational reliability. This paper reports on subsea cables that MeyGen installed for Phase 1a of the Pentland Firth Inner Sound tidal stream energy project. These cables are located on rocky seabeds in an area where severe metocean conditions occur. ROV field observation of these cables shows them to be stable on the seabed with little or no movement occurring over almost all of the cable routes, despite conventional engineering methods predicting significant dynamic movement. We cite recent research undertaken by the University of Western Australia (UWA) to more accurately assess the hydrodynamic forces and geotechnical interaction of cables on rocky seabeds. We quantify the conformity between the cables and the undulating rocky seabed, and the distributions of cable-seabed contact and spanning via simulations of the centimetric-scale seabed bathymetry. This analysis leads to calculated profiles of lift, drag and seabed friction along the cable, which show that all of these load and reaction components are modelled in an over-conservative way by conventional pipeline engineering techniques. Overall, our analysis highlights that current cable stability design can be unnecessarily conservative on rocky seabeds. Our work foreshadows a new design approach that offers more efficient cable design to reduce project capex and enhance through-life integrity management.

In this paper a beam bending model is combined with existing predictive formulas for pipeline scour to study changes to pipeline stability during scour and lowering. The model is introduced and demonstrated for a range of simplified conditions, including scour-induced lowering of a pipeline resulting from multiple uniformly spaced scour initiation points. The model is then used with a synthetic seabed generated with a variety of length scales. In this simulation the pipeline is ‘laid’ onto the seabed, leading to the formation of ‘natural’ initiation points for scour. The distribution and spacing of the initiation points (which are a function of the pipeline bending stiffness, tension and seabed roughness) lead to different rates of pipeline lowering and stability. The resulting model may be used within a probabilistic framework to estimate changes to pipeline stability resulting from sediment mobility and scour.

A novel approach to eliminate the onset of global buckling in pipelines is investigated in the paper. The method is based on pre-deforming a pipeline continuously with a specific wavelength and amplitude prior to installation on the seabed. The response of the pipeline to applied high temperature and pressure was studied in conjunction with variations in the lateral pipe-soil interaction (PSI) — both as uniform friction along the pipe and also with locally varying friction. Pipe and seabed parameters representing a typical wet-insulated infield flow line on soft clay are used. The pre-deformed pipeline has a higher buckle initiation temperature compared to a straight pipeline due to the reduced effective axial force build-up resulting from the low axial stiffness generated by the pre-deformed lobes along the pipeline. The results from this paper show that the strains in the pre-deformed pipeline are not significantly affected by the local variability of lateral PSI but rather by the global mean PSI. At a typical lateral soil resistance, i.e. a friction coefficient of 0.5, lateral buckling occurs at a very high temperature level that is not common in the subsea operation. At a very low friction, i.e. 0.1, lateral buckling occurs at a lower operating temperature but the strain is insignificant. The longitudinal strain of the pipeline is not highly sensitive to the lateral PSI, which is a quite different response to an initially straight pipeline. Therefore, this method could prove to be a valuable tool for the subsea industry as it enables the pipeline to be installed and operated safely at very high temperatures without the need for lateral buckling design and installation of expensive structures as buckle initiators. Even if the pre-deformed pipeline buckles at a very high temperature, during cycles of heat-up and cool-down the buckle shape ‘shakes down’ by geometric rearrangement to minimize the energy, and in doing so creates a series of ‘short pipelines’ in which the longitudinal strain is self-controlled. The system is therefore shown to be very robust in the conditions investigated and not affected by one of the biggest unknowns in seabed pipeline engineering, which is the local variability in lateral PSI.

The on-bottom stability design of subsea pipelines is important to ensure safety and reliability but is challenging to achieve, particularly in Australia due to onerous metocean and seabed conditions, and the prevalence of light gas pipelines. This challenge has been amplified by the fact that industry design guidelines have given no guidance on how to incorporate the potential benefits of seabed mobility, which can lead to lowering and self-burial of the pipeline on a sandy seabed. In this paper, we review the learnings of the STABLEpipe Joint Industry Project (JIP), which was initiated with the aim of developing new design guidelines to assess the on-bottom stability of pipelines on mobile seabeds. The paper summarises the new research undertaken within the STABLEpipe JIP to better predict sedimentation and scour, pipe-fluid interaction and pipe-soil interaction. New design methods to assess the on-bottom stability are also outlined, which have been developed based on the new research. These methods have been adopted in a DNVGL guideline authored by the JIP researchers in collaboration with DNVGL and presently available for use by the JIP participants. Finally, applications of the STABLEpipe JIP outcomes and focus areas for further work are discussed.

In 2000 the first case of pipeline walking (PW) was properly documented when this phenomenon seriously impacted a North Sea high pressure and high temperature (HP/HT) pipeline (Tornes et al. 2000). By then, the main drivers of this problem were accordingly identified for the case studied. On the other hand, to study other aspects related not only to PW, the industry joined forces in the SAFEBUCK Joint Industry Project (JIP) with academic partners. As a result, other drivers, which lead a pipeline to walk, have been identified (Bruton et al. 2010). Nowadays, during the design stage of pipelines, estimates are calculated for pipeline walking. These estimates often use a Rigid-Plastic (RP) soil idealization and the Coulomb friction principle (Carr et al. 2006). Unfortunately, this model does not reflect the real pipe-soil interaction behavior, and in practice time consuming finite element computations are often performed using an Elastic-Perfectly-Plastic (EPP) soil model. In reality, some observed axial pipe-soil responses are extremely non-linear and present a brittle peak strength before a strain softening response (White et al. 2011). This inaccuracy of the soil representation normally overestimates the Walking Rate (WR) (a rigid plastic soil model leads to greater walking). A magnified WR invariably leads to false interpretations besides being unrealistic. Finally, a distorted WR might also demand mitigating measures that could be avoided if the soil had been adequately treated. Unnecessary mitigation has a very strong and negative effect on the project as whole. It will require more financial and time investments for the entire development of the project — from design to construction activities. Therefore, having more realistic and pertinent estimates becomes valuable not only because of budgetary issues but also because of time frame limits. The present paper will show the results of a set of Finite Element Analyses (FEA) performed for a case-study pipeline. The analyses — carried out on ABAQUS software — used a specific subroutine code prepared to appropriately mimic Non-Linear Brittle Peak with Strain Softening (NLBPSS) axial pipe-soil interaction behavior. The specific subroutine code was represented in the Finite Element Models (FEMs) by a series of User Elements (UELs) attached to the pipe elements. The NLBPSS case is a late and exclusive contribution from the present work to the family of available pipeline walking solutions for different forms of axial pipe-soil interaction model. The parametric case-study results are benchmarked against theoretical calculations of pipeline walking showing that the case study results deliver a reasonable accuracy level and are reliable. The results are then distilled into a simplified method in which the WR for NLBPSS soil can be estimated by adjusting a solution derived for RP and EPP soil. The key outcome is a genuine method to correct the WR resultant from a RP soil approach to allow for peak and softening behaviour. It provides a design tool that extends beyond the previously-available solutions and allows more rapid and efficient predictions of pipeline walking to be made. This contribution clarifies, for the downslope walking case, what is the most appropriate basis to incorporate or idealize the soil characteristics within the axial Pipe-Soil Interaction (PSI) response when performing PW assessments.

The behavior of pipelines, cables and umbilicals on rocky seabeds has to date received little research attention. This is despite the marine renewable energy and oil and gas industries relying on these ‘pipes’ to cross a variety of rocky seabed types in the presence of extreme metocean conditions. Present design solutions are challenging and costly, yet there remains a track record of in-service failures. This paper forms part of a wider research effort being undertaken by the University of Western Australia (UWA) into pipe behavior on rocky seabeds. This work includes the effects intermittent gaps have on hydrodynamic forces, the effect of seabed roughness on enhanced boundary layer thickness and the validity of existing hydrodynamic force models for small diameter cables. In this paper, the lateral resistance of pipes on rocky seabeds is investigated using both physical and numerical testing of model pipes over artificially-created rocky seabeds. Four model pipes of varying diameter have been displaced laterally over 1 m square model rocky seabeds, with a range of pipe to rock diameters. The lateral resistance of the physical pipe tests were recorded using load cells and a digital data-logger. Analysis of the physical test results has enabled comparison to (and refinement of) numerical models as well as improved understanding of the importance of different parameters. Our results show peak frictions above 6 arising under conditions where interface friction is only about 0.3, which contrasts dramatically with the friction value of 0.6 nominated in F109. This work contributes towards generation of new design methods suitable for application to field conditions.

The variety of applications in which small industrial gas turbines are used requires that they be readily capable of integration into cogeneration schemes and combined gas/steam cycles as well as providing reliable and efficient stand-alone performance. Several gas turbine based power systems are reviewed briefly. Simple cycle and recuperative engines, and possibly intercooled/recuperative engines, appear to be the most likely primary arrangements for developing more efficient industrial gas turbine based systems. These systems include high pressure, high temperature steam turbines recently developed. When coupled with high pressure, high temperature steam generators, industrial scale simple cycle gas turbines can offer high electrical generation efficiencies with excellent turndown and overall heat utilization in cogeneration mode. Basically, high efficiency depends on firing temperature (TRIT). Firing temperature will continue to increase using advanced metal casting and cooling techniques developed in the aircraft engine sector, and possibly ceramics, which are more applicable in industrial engines than elsewhere. Electrical efficiencies for rated outputs of 5–20 MW will be 32–35 percent for simple cycle gas turbines, up to 42 percent in recuperative engines and cogeneration systems, and 45 percent in combined cycles. The paper lists references describing in detail many of the developments that have contributed to state-of-the-art industrial turbine design.

Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) facilities, which are a new type of floating platform, have been developed as an alternative to long pipelines for the exploitation of stranded offshore fields. FLNG vessels will be subjected to very complicated and onerous sea states in some regions and very severe motion responses must be avoided. The vessel motion can induce internal tank sloshing, which can in turn affect the global motion response of the vessel. This coupling response is of great importance for the safe design and operation of FLNG facilities in real sea states. This paper investigates the coupling effect between FLNG roll motions and sloshing. Model tests are carried out for a section of an FLNG vessel containing a tank excited in roll by band-limited white noise waves. During the model tests, the FLNG model is ballasted with fresh water and equivalent steel ballast weights respectively, to quantify the coupling effects due to the internal sloshing. Time histories of the global motions and the internal sloshing oscillations have been measured. Statistical and spectral analyses have been carried out on the measured data. The response amplitude operators are obtained using measured motion spectra divided by the excitation wave spectrum. The influence of the internal sloshing on the global motions has been illustrated through the comparison of the experimental results between the liquid and solid (steel) ballast weight cases. Based on the experimental results, some conclusions regarding the coupling mechanism between FLNG motions and sloshing are drawn.

A sound understanding of near-surface soil strength is essential for the accurate prediction of the response of structures laid on or shallowly embedded in the seabed. However, characterisation of the uppermost region of the seabed, which is typically very soft and at a low-stress state, is extremely challenging. This paper demonstrates a novel technique for characterising the in situ undrained shear strength of near-surface soils using a newly-developed pile penetrometer. The pile penetrometer is vertically embedded into the near-surface soil and is driven laterally. A simple calculation of the resistance mobilised over the embedded depth of the pile penetrometer is presented along with its application to the continuous measurement of spatial variation in near-surface strength in virgin and disturbed regions of soil.

The rapid penetration of one or more of the foundations of a mobile jack-up rig into the seabed is an ongoing major problem in the offshore industry, with the potential to cause major damage to the structure and endangering any personnel on board. A recent example is the jack-up drilling rig Perro Negro 6 incident happened near the mouth of the Congo river in July 2013 with one of the rig’s crew of 103 reported missing and six others injured. This uncontrollable displacement is due to a form of failure known as punch through failure and commonly occurs on stratified seabed profiles. It has been reported that unexpected punch-through accidents have resulted in both rig damage and lost drilling time at a rate of 1 incident per annum with consequential costs estimated at between US$1 and US$10 million [1]. This paper presents the bearing capacity profiles and associated soil flow mechanisms of a common spudcan foundation penetrating into a three layer soft-stiff-soft clay soil through the use of large deformation finite element (LDFE) analysis. The Remeshing and Interpolation with Small Strain (RITSS) [2, 3] technique was implemented in the software package AFENA [4] to conduct the LDFE analysis. Both soil layer thickness and soil layer strength ratios were varied to study their effect on the spudcan penetration responses. The LDFE results of spudcan penetration into the soft-stiff-soft clay soils were calibrated by existing centrifuge test data. A parametric study was then conducted to study the bearing capacity responses and soil flow mechanisms during spudcan large penetrations by varying the soil layer strength ratio and relative layer thickness to the diameter of spudcan. It was found that there were three types of bearing responses during continuous penetration of spudcan: (a) when the top soft layer is relatively thin, the spudcan bearing response was similar to that of two layer soils with stiff over soft clays; (b) when the top soil layer thickness is medium, a peak resistance is observed when spudcan penetrates into the middle stiff layer followed by reduction; (c) when the soil layer is thick, the peak resistance occurs when spudcan gets into the bottom soft soil layer. The critical thickness of top soil layer is a function of soil strength ratio and middle stiff soil layer thickness. The bearing response types were also corresponding to the soil cavity formations during spudcan initial penetration.

Under cyclonic conditions, sediment on the North West Shelf (NWS) of Australia may become mobile in shallow water due to classical sediment transport or local liquefaction, and this can affect, for example, the on-bottom stability of subsea pipelines. In this paper, three calcareous sediments sampled from the NWS are analysed, together with realistic metocean data, to illustrate this potential for sediment mobility on the NWS. Specifically, experiments are performed in a recirculating flume (known as an O-Tube) to measure the erosional behaviour and an additional series of experiments are performed using a shaking table, on which each of the sediments have been liquefied and excess pore pressure measurements recorded to back calculate the consolidation coefficient. Soil characterisation data, threshold velocity measurements and shaking table results have then combined to illustrate the potential for sediment mobility for each of the NWS sediments. Best practice models are used to calculate wave and current combined shear stress at the seabed and excess pore pressure accumulation. We find that for these sediments, freshly deposited in laboratory samples, mobility due to sediment transport or liquefaction is very likely in cyclonic conditions on the NWS. Liquefaction is most likely for loosely packed silt, whilst sediment transport is most likely for sand. However, we also show that in more extreme cyclonic conditions there are a subset of sediments that can become mobile due to both sediment transport and liquefaction.

The hydrodynamic forces exerted on a pipeline partially buried in a permeable seabed subjected to combined random oscillatory flow are investigated experimentally. The tests were carried out in a re-circulating flume that can generate steady currents, oscillatory flow and combined flow, known as the O-tube. The performance of the testing facility was validated against published experimental data under regular oscillatory flow conditions. Four tests with different embedment depths, under random oscillatory flow conditions were then carried out. The flow velocity, hydrodynamic pressure around the model pipe and pore pressure in the soil were monitored. The hydrodynamic forces were calculated through pressure integration around the model pipe. The hydrodynamic force reduction due to embedment was compared with the model given in the most widely-used pipeline stability design guideline, DNV-RPF109. A horizontal load reduction of 55% was found for the fully buried pipe, which was lower than the 70% reduction suggested by DNV-RP-F109. The variation of the vertical hydrodynamic load with embedment ratio (embedment depth to pipe diameter) was also found to be different from the model suggested by DNV-RP-F109. It was found the fully buried pipe experienced a large vertical force, even higher than that of the fully exposed pipe, under low KC number conditions.

The O-tube facility, designed and established at the University of Western Australia, is an innovative closed loop flume in which a random storm sequence can be reproduced via control of a large pump system. The O-tube facility is capable of simulating hydrodynamic conditions near the seabed and the interaction with seabed sediment and any infrastructure that is resting on it. The purpose of carrying out the O-tube calibration described in this paper is to obtain the relationship between the motor rotation movement and the flow velocity generated in the O-tube, such that any required storm history within the performance envelope of the O-tube can be reproduced. A range of flow velocities and the corresponding pump speeds were measured under steady current, oscillatory flow and combined flow conditions. It was found that the relationship between the pump speed and the flow velocity varies with the oscillatory flow period. Based on the pump characteristic curves and O-tube system curves, the correlation between the motor speed and the flow velocity was derived by applying hydraulic theory and the principle of energy conservation. The derived correlation is validated by reproducing a wide range of target storm series, including a (1:5.8) scaled 100-year return period storm from the North West Shelf of Western Australia in 40 m water depth.

The SkyTrough is an advanced integrated parabolic trough concentrator designed for high performance and low cost to achieve economic objectives in the market for high grade heat for industrial processes and electrical generation. To achieve low cost, a comprehensive optimization process was carried out for every component based on the choice of low cost silvered polymer film as the reflector. To verify high performance, the optical efficiency of a single module was measured at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), and a demonstration loop was constructed in December, 2009 at the SEGS-II solar power plant in Daggett, CA, USA. This paper compares operating data recorded over eighteen months for the commercial demonstration at the SEGS-II plant with model predictions based on the NREL efficiency measurement. The comparison demonstrates that the SkyTrough system will perform predictably over time. Additional data illustrating the good performance of the collector in wind, and the sustained reflectance of the mirror film, are presented.

Characterization of the strength of fine-grained sediments as they evolve from an intact seabed material to a remolded debris flow is essential to adequately model submarine landslides and their impact on pipelines and other seabed infrastructure. In the current literature, two distinct approaches for modelling this material behavior have been considered. In the soil mechanics approach, fine-grained soils are characterized by the undrained shear strength, s u . The critical state framework proposes a relation between s u and the water content, or void ratio of the soil. In addition, rate effects and strain softening effects are described by multiplying a reference value of s u by a function of the shear strain rate or the accumulated shear strain respectively. In the fluid mechanics approach, slurries of fine-grained material are characterized by a yield strength and a viscosity parameter, which describes the change in shear stress with shear strain rate. Empirical relationships have been proposed, which relate the yield strength and the viscosity to the sediment concentration. This paper demonstrates that the two modelling approaches are essentially similar, with only some formal differences. It is proposed that the strength of fine-grained sediments can be modelled in a unified way over the solid and liquid ranges. To support this unified approach, an experimental campaign has been conducted to obtain strength measurements on various clays prepared at different water content. The testing program includes fall cone tests, vane shear tests, miniature penetrometers (T-bar and ball) and viscometer tests. Rate effects and remolding effects are investigated over a wide range of water contents spanning the domains of behavior that are usually defined separately as soil and fluid. The present paper focuses on analyzing the results of fall cone, vane shear and viscometer tests. Analysis of the results shows that the variation in shear strength over the solid and liquid ranges can be described by a unique function of water content — suitably normalized — for a given soil. Furthermore, the effect of strain rate and degree of remolding can be accounted for by multiplying the basic strength parameter by appropriate functions, which are independent of the current water content.

Paper presents the results from development and successful testing of a 200 kW POGT prototype. There are two major design features that distinguish POGT from a conventional gas turbine: a POGT utilizes a partial oxidation reactor (POR) in place of a conventional combustor which leads to a much smaller compressor requirement versus comparably rated conventional gas turbine. From a thermodynamic perspective, the working fluid provided by the POR has higher specific heat than lean combustion products enabling the POGT expander to extract more energy per unit mass of fluid. The POGT exhaust is actually a secondary fuel gas that can be combusted in different bottoming cycles or used as synthesis gas for hydrogen or other chemicals production. Conversion steps for modifying a 200 kW radial turbine to POGT duty are described including: utilization of the existing (unmodified) expander; replacement of the combustor with a POR unit; introduction of steam for cooling of the internal turbine structure; and installation of a bypass air port for bleeding excess air from the compressor discharge because of 45% reduction in combustion air requirements. The engine controls that were re-configured for start-up and operation are reviewed including automation of POGT start-up and loading during light-off at lean condition, transition from lean to rich combustion during acceleration, speed control and stabilization under rich operation. Changes were implemented in microprocessor-based controllers. The fully-integrated POGT unit was installed and operated in a dedicated test cell at GTI equipped with extensive process instrumentation and data acquisition systems. Results from a parametric experimental study of POGT operation for co-production of power and H2-enriched synthesis gas are provided.