Solitary Wave Propagation Over Partially-Buried Pipes

Abstract We analyse the propagation of nonlinear waves over a partially-buried submerged pipes in shallow water. Submerged pipes play a critical role across various industries due to their ability to transport fluids or serve as structural elements underwater. Key applications include water intake and outfall pipelines, subsea oil and gas pipelines, cooling water systems for power plants, and protective conduits for fiber-optic or power cables laid on the seabed, among others. Hydrodynamic loads can displace submerged pipes from their partially-buried positions, causing them to float to equilibrium positions exposed on the seabed. Such displacement leads to structural damage and additional unanticipated dynamics. This study aims to determine the dynamics of wave interaction with submerged pipes and provide insight regarding loads induced by nonlinear extreme waves on partially-buried pipes, an issue of increasing importance given climate change effects such as sea level rise and intensified extreme weather events that result in larger unpredicted loads. The wave field and wave-induced pressure are determined by use of the Level I Green-Naghdi (GN) theory. The GN equations, which satisfy exactly the nonlinear free-surface boundary conditions and the body boundary condition, are solved using a finite-difference approach. While the introduced model applies to the interaction of nonlinear waves (whether solitary or periodic, regular or irregular) with submerged pipes in shallow water buried at arbitrary configurations, the results presented in this paper focus specifically on the propagation of a solitary wave over a partially buried, submerged, circular pipe. Results include wave-induced pressures, as well as modifications to the wave surface elevation and velocity field due to the submerged pipe, relevant to breakwater applications.