Seabed-Structure Interactions in Coastal Sediments

摘要

Seabed-structure interactions are responsible for the burial of heavy objects, such as mines, pipelines, concrete breakwaters, platforms, and other objects on the seafloor. In low shear strength muds, these objects are known to bury at impact or to sink into the sediment if the buoyant weight of the object exceeds the bearing capacity of the seafloor. In higher energy sandy sediments, burial by scour and fill, momentary or cyclic wave-induced liquefaction, and seabed morphological changes (e.g., transverse bedform migration, changes in shore-rise and bar-berm conditions, sediment deposition) is common. Each of the possible burial processes will be discussed and an integrated, time-dependent object burial model will be proposed. Results from three recent burial experiments on cylindrically shaped objects will be used to demonstrate burial by biological processes, scourifill and changes in near-shore beach and bar morphology, and subaqueous dune migration.