Global buckling of pipelines in the vertical plane with a soft seabed

Offshore pipelines are usually buried to avoid damage from fishing activities and to provide thermal insulation. Provided that the buried pipelines are sufficiently confined in the lateral direction by the passive resistance of the trench walls, they may be subject to vertical buckling caused by a rise in temperature. Vertical buckling is usually called upheaval buckling because the heated pipeline is assumed to move upwards conventionally. However, the seabed may be very soft, especially where a pockmark or abyssal ooze appears. Consequently, under thermal compressive force, the pipeline may buckle downward and penetrate into the seabed because the downward soil resistance is small. In this study, we extended an analytical solution for vertical pipeline buckling on a rigid seabed to a soft seabed, and the effects of soil resistance on pipeline stability, buckling mode and amplitude are illustrated and analyzed.