Abstract Pipelines are important to offshore oil and gas development, but suffers from the pipeline walking phenomenon due to cyclic temperature variations—where large axial walking distances threaten the safety of pipeline systems. Current research indicates that pipeline walking is triggered by steel catenary riser (SCR) tension, seabed slopes, or thermal transients. This paper proposes a new driving mechanism for the pipeline walking phenomenon, involving cyclic hardening soil strength. The finite element analysis method was adopted to analyse the soil friction difference induced walking phenomenon, and the influence of key parameters on the gain in soil friction on walking distance was studied. Pipeline walking distances under different drainage conditions in the heating and cooling processes were also calculated, and the impact of the degree of drainage in the heating process was determined. To better understand the new pipeline walking mechanism, theoretical analysis of the walking behaviour under different cyclic soil friction conditions was carried out. Analytical solutions for estimating the pipeline walking distance were also provided, based on the simplified theoretical analysis.

中文翻译：

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均匀海底自由铺设深海海底管道循环增加土摩擦引起的管道走行研究

摘要 管道是海上油气开发的重要组成部分，但由于温度循环变化而产生管道走行现象，大的轴向走行距离威胁管道系统的安全。目前的研究表明，管道移动是由钢悬链线立管 (SCR) 张力、海床坡度或热瞬变触发的。本文提出了一种新的管道行走现象驱动机制，涉及循环硬化土壤强度。采用有限元分析方法对土壤摩擦力差异引起的步行现象进行了分析，研究了关键参数对土壤摩擦力增益对步行距离的影响。还计算了加热和冷却过程中不同排水条件下的管道步行距离，并确定了加热过程中排水程度的影响。为了更好地理解新的管道行走机制，对不同循环土摩擦条件下的行走行为进行了理论分析。基于简化的理论分析，还提供了用于估计管道步行距离的分析解决方案。