Effect of the soil undrained cohesion profile on the response of a sliding subsea foundation : centrifuge tests
Résumé
Pipeline end termination (PLET) structures used in subsea deepwater developments are subjected to significant axial expansion forces arising from heating up and cooling down production periods of the incoming pipelines. Resisting these forces with a fixed foundation would lead to excessive foundation sizes when axial expansions are large. Allowing the foundation to slide over the seabed as a whole could lead to a more economical solution. To design this foundation, its displacements and rotations during several cycles of large-amplitude must be precisely characterised. Series of scale model tests in the centrifuge are performed to understand the complex behaviour of this foundation. These tests focus on the influence of degree of soil consolidation on the sliding foundation response under in-plane loading