Load-Bearing Capacity of Subsea Pipeline with Variation of Sea Water Depth and Buried Depth

Subsea pipelines have been operated with buried depths of 1.2-4 m underneath the seabed to prevent buoyancy and external impacts. Therefore, they have to show resistance to both the soil load and the hydrostatic pressure. In this study, the structural integrity of a subsea pipeline subjected to soil load and hydrostatic pressure was evaluated by using FE analyses. A parametric study showed that the internal pressure increased the plastic collapse depth by increasing the resistance to plastic collapse. The hoop stress increased with an increase in the buried depth for the same water depth; however, the hoop stress decreased with an increase in the water depth for the same buried depth.