Deepwater Foundations and Pipeline Geomechanics

Practicing engineers in the offshore engineering industry will find in this contributed handbook practical information on current oil field production development practices for foundations and subsea flowlines. The technical challenges associated with deepwater developments have led to significant innovations. The contributors are practicing engineers and academics who have been at the forefront of offshore geotechnic development for several decades. Until the 1980s, the most common design concerns for offshore foundation and pipeline engineering were associated with extreme storm loadings, earthquakes, mudflows, fatigue, and installation activities. Engineers today face additional concerns, including: submarine slope failures, thermal buckling of pipelines, catenary riser interaction with the seafloor, vortex induced vibration of flowlines, shallow water flows encountered during drilling operations, and thermal interaction of pipelines with permafrost. This handbook describes recent advances in geophysical data acquisition and evaluation as they relate to offshore developments, as well as foundation and pipeline design considerations. The presentation is focused on deepwater geotechnics as well as subsea and Arctic pipeline design considerations, but engineers will find much of it applicable to other situations.