Numerical Simulation Of Wave Action On Submarine Pipeline

Submarine pipeline is vital in developing and using seabed oil and gas resources, thus it is honored as the so-called "lifeline" for offshore oil fields. As a result of both the high cost of those pipelines and difficulties in maintenance, research on the characteristics of the hydrodynamic load in the submarine pipelines is of important practical significance.In this paper, a two-dimensional numerical wave flume is established based on volume of fluid (VOF) technique in numerical simulation. The Navier-Stokes equation under incompressible turbulent flow around a seabed pipeline is dispersed by using a three-step finite element method (FEM) and a large eddy simulation (LES). The paper presents the flow around the seabed pipeline and the wave forces on the pipeline by using numerical method. The results of the numerical simulation are analyzed and compared with the experimental results, which states that the results from the numerical simulation are reasonable and verifies the reliability of the numerical simulation.A typical research condition is selected among various conditions. Time course lines of the horizontal force and lift force of the submarine pipelines are obtained by altering factors such as gap ratios and wave elements. Comparison of wave force calculated between physical model test with gravity similarity criterion and numerical simulation is carried out by changing the length ratio scale of the physical model test, which contributes to assessing the methods of figuring the wave force with scale effects.