The Pressure Ridge Ice Scour Experiment (PRISE) joint industry program engaged studies to address engineering design and integrity issues for offshore pipelines and subsea facilities in environments subjected to seabed ice gouging. Comparison of field investigations on relict gouge events with centrifuge experiments demonstrated that the effects of subgouge soil deformations on buried pipelines should be considered. Based on the PRISE investigations, an empirical three-dimensional subgouge deformation model for cohesive soil was developed. Two-dimensional finite element analysis predicted horizontal and vertical deformation centerline profiles consistent with the free-field subgouge deformations measured in centrifuge model experiments. An engineering procedure to evaluate pipeline mechanical behaviour due to ice gouge events based on structural pipeline/soil interaction models was developed. The engineering models have since been advanced within a probabilistic and structural reliability based design method. A review of the PRISE numerical studies is presented.
展开▼
