Numerical modeling of interaction between soil and seabed infrastructure during submarine landslides

Large amounts of crude oil and natural gas are located beneath Canada’s ocean floors. Currently, the offshore oil and gas industry makes a significant contribution to the Canadian economy. Although it is not visible as onshore landslides, numerous underwater landslides occur where huge amount of seabed sediment might displace and could result in tsunami in some cases. The failed soil mass might impact seabed infrastructure and could damage or destroy them as reported from some field observation. In the proposed research, the likelihood of submarine slope failure and run-out distance of the failed soil mass will be studied. The consequence of impact loading on offshore pipelines used for hydrocarbon transportation and piles used to support offshore structures or anchor floating facility will be investigated. Five graduate students at Memorial University of Newfoundland will receive training on offshore geotechnical engineering through this research program. The partner organizations (C-CORE & INTECSEA) will receive better tools and design approaches to provide advanced engineering solutions to offshore oil and gas projects.

Faculty Supervisor:

Bipul Hawlader

Student:

Chike Paschal Okoloekwe, Subhagata Roy, Naveel Islam, Chen Wang

Partner:

INTECSEA

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Oil and gas

University:

Memorial University of Newfoundland