Seabed Liquefaction with Reduction of Soil Strength due to Cyclic Wave Excitation

This study introduces the case of pipelines installed in subsea conditions and buried offshore. Such installations generate pore water pressure under the seabed because of cyclic wave excitation, which is an environmental load, and consistent cyclic wave loading that reduce the soil shear strength of the seabed, possibly leading to liquefaction. Therefore, in view of the liquefaction of the seabed, stability of the subsea pipelines should be examined via calculations using a simple method for buried subsea pipelines and floating structures. Particularly, for studying the possible liquefaction of the seabed in regard to subsea pipelines, high waves of a 10- and 100-year period and the number of occurrences that are affected by the environment within a division cycle of 90 s should be applied. However, when applying significant wave heights (HS), the number of occurrences within a division cycle of 3 h are required to be considered. Furthermore, to research whether dynamic vertical load affect the seabed, mostly a linear wave is used; this is particularly necessary to apply for considering the liquefaction of the seabed in the case of pile structure or subsea pipeline installation.