See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/333023716

Undrained stability analysis of trenches for buried submarine pipelines

Article  in  Marine Georesources and Geotechnology · May 2019

DOI: 10.1080/1064119X.2019.1604918

CITATIONS READS

2 470

5 authors, including:

Lijun Ke Dayong Li
Hohai University China University of Petroleum
5 PUBLICATIONS   5 CITATIONS    61 PUBLICATIONS   546 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Jingwu Zhang Jian Ji

East China University of Technology Hohai University
5 PUBLICATIONS   12 CITATIONS    53 PUBLICATIONS   729 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Deep sea anchor View project

Advanced Condition Assessment & Pipeline Failure Prediction Project View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Lijun Ke on 31 December 2019.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Marine Georesources & Geotechnology

ISSN: 1064-119X (Print) 1521-0618 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/umgt20

Undrained stability analysis of trenches for buried

submarine pipelines

Lijun Ke, Yufeng Gao, Dayong Li, Jingwu Zhang & Jian Ji

To cite this article: Lijun Ke, Yufeng Gao, Dayong Li, Jingwu Zhang & Jian Ji (2019):
Undrained stability analysis of trenches for buried submarine pipelines, Marine Georesources &
Geotechnology, DOI: 10.1080/1064119X.2019.1604918

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/1064119X.2019.1604918

Published online: 11 May 2019.

Submit your article to this journal

Article views: 17

View Crossmark data

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=umgt20
MARINE GEORESOURCES & GEOTECHNOLOGY
https://doi.org/10.1080/1064119X.2019.1604918

Undrained stability analysis of trenches for buried submarine pipelines

Lijun Kea, Yufeng Gaoa, Dayong Lib,c, Jingwu Zhangd and Jian Jia
a
Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education for Geomechanics and Embankment Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People’s
Republic of China; bCollege of Civil Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, Fujian, People’s Republic of China; cCollege of Civil Engineering
and Architecture, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, Shandong, People’s Republic of China; dSchool of Earth
Sciences and Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

The stability of trenches for buried submarine pipelines (TBSPs) during excavation and/or prior to Received 21 October 2018
backfilling has not received enough attention in the literature. In this study, the undrained stability of Accepted 11 March 2019
TBSPs in horizontal and inclined seabeds with shear strengths increasing linearly with depth is investi-
KEYWORDS
gated using the lower and upper bound finite element limit analysis (FELA). The surcharge due to
Trenches for submarine
excavated soils and trenching machines is reasonably considered. Extensive parametric studies are pipeline; stability analysis;
performed on the trench slope angle b, normalized width of trenching machine L/H, dimensionless limit analysis; finite
strength gradient Hk/su0 and the volume ratio R (for inclined seabed only) of the excavated soil elements; excavation;
stacked on the upside and downside of trenches. The actual results are accurately bracketed by the strength inhomogeneity
computed upper and lower bound solutions. For the trench with horizontal seabeds, the maximum
stability can be obtained under b ¼ 70 –80 . For inclined seabeds, the global stability of TBSPs
roughly reaches peak value for different combinations of L/H and b when R ¼ 0.15–0.3.

Introduction frequently in the working process (prior to backfilling),

It is realized that seafloor usually shows gentle slopes, of
which the inclinations are generally less than 10 (Hadj-
Hamou and Kavazanjian 1985). However, submarine geo-
logical hazards still occur frequently and mostly on inclined
seabeds with an inclination of about 5 (Hance 2003). In
recent decades, numerous studies have been performed on
the submarine landslides (Rodrıguez-Ochoa, Nadim, and
Hicks 2015; Puzrin, Germanovich, and Friedli 2015; Puzrin,
Gray, and Hill 2017; Dey et al. 2016; Zhang et al. 2017,
2018), and their impacts on offshore pipelines (Zakeri,
Høeg, and Nadim 2009; Zhu and Randolph 2010; Randolph
and White 2012; Liu, Tian, and Yi 2015; Dong, Wang, and
Randolph 2017; Fan et al. 2017). Particularly, submarine
pipelines are extensively used in the offshore industry for
their reported convenience and efficiency in transportation
of offshore energy. The submarine pipelines are often buried
at a certain depth into seabeds in order to be protected
from environmental loading, boat anchors, fishery activities
and upheaval buckling, etc. (Recommended Practice DNV-
RP-F107; Gao and Wu 2006; Zhu and Randolph 2010;
Bransby et al. 2018). The problem configuration for a trench
excavation for submarine pipelines is shown in Figure 1. In
recent years, the trenching depth and diameter have con-
tinuously increased due to the advancement of marine
resources exploitation. However, as the shallow layer of sea-
beds is mostly soft soil with low strength, trench collapses
which would not only result in pipelines being buried too
shallow and/or out of specification but also damage the con-
struction equipment (Cathie and Wintgens 2001; Bransby
et al. 2018). Therefore, the temporary stability of trenches
for buried submarine pipelines (TBSPs) is a major concern
for submarine construction safety.
It is worth pointing out that the stability of slurry
trenches in foundation pit engineerings has been well docu-
mented. Li et al. (2013a, 2013b), respectively, assessed the
stability of slurry trenches with inclined ground surface and
similar layered soils using the limit equilibrium method. A
variational limit equilibrium closed-form solution for the
stability of slurry-supported trenches was presented by
Zhang et al. (2017). Zhang et al. (2018) investigated the
influence of anisotropy and nonhomogeneity on the stability
of slurry-support trenches by using the upper bound the-
orem of limit analysis. However, the study on the stability of
TBSPs during trenching is extremely limited. Yen and Allen
(1977) analyzed the spread of submarine slopes caused by
trenching using the limit equilibrium method. However, the
surcharge of excavated soils and the load from the weight of
trenching machine were not involved, and an assumed linear
failure mode was employed. In most excavation project of
TBSPs, excavated soils were usually directly stacked on both
sides of the trench in order to facilitate the subsequent back-
filling work. Furthermore, it was not easy to remove the
excavated soils away from the trench crests in a timely

CONTACT Yufeng Gao yfgao66@163.com Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education for Geomechanics and Embankment Engineering, Hohai University,
Nanjing, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China
ß 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 L. KE ET AL.
Figure 1. The schematic diagram of excavating TBSPs.
manner due to the harsh submarine environments.
Therefore, the impacts of the surcharge load from excavated
soils on the stability of TBSPs should be taken into consid-
eration. On the other hand, influence on TBSPs from accu-
mulated pore pressures and residual liquefaction of the
seabed soils have also been pointed out by Zhao and Jeng
(2016) and Zhao, Jeng, and Liao (2016a, 2016b).
In this study, the undrained stability of TBSPs in hori-
zontal/inclined seabeds with shear strength increasing lin-
early with depth is investigated using the lower and upper
bound finite element limit analysis (FELA) which is carried
out using a commercial software OptumG2. The surcharge
load of excavated soils and trenching machine load are consid-
ered. Some novel results about the effects of the trench slope
angle b, normalized machine width L/H, dimensionless
strength gradient Hk/su0 and the volume ratio (R, for inclined
seabed only) of the excavated soils stacked on the upside and
downside of trenches on the trenching stability and failure
mechanism are obtained. Furthermore, a comparison is made
between the calculated results with uniform and linearly
increasing strengths of soils. Based on the results, feasible
trench slope angle b and optimized ratio R are suggested,
which may serve as a reference for engineering practices.
Problem description
This paper mainly focused on the short-term stability of
TBSPs during the working process, thus the trenching slopes
could be regarded as undrained condition. The seabed soil
was assumed to be elastic-perfectly plastic Tresca material
with associated flow rule. Previous studies have suggested
that natural geo-materials are nonhomogeneous with vari-
able properties (Ji et al. 2018, 2019; Wu et al. 2019), e.g., the
variable shear strengths. In this study, the undrained shear
strength su of the seabed soil was assumed to linearly
increase with depth, as given by the following equation:
su ¼ su0 þ kz (1)
where su0 is the shear strength at seabed surface, k is the
strength gradient and z is the seabed depth.
The initial stress was calculated based on a submerged
unit weight c0 and horizontal earth pressure coefficient K0 of
unity. Poisson’s ratio l ¼ 0.49 and Young’s modulus ratio
Eu/su ¼ 500 were adopted, as suggested by Zhu and
Figure 2. Problem geometry and notation: (a) horizontal seabed and (b)
inclined seabed.
Randolph (2010). The geometry and notation of the problem
are shown in Figure 2. The trenching machine load
qt ¼ 10 kPa and the normalized skids (or pedrails) width B/
H ¼ 1 were assumed for both horizontal and inclined sea-
beds. A series of parametric studies involving trench slope
angles b (45–50 ), normalized machine widths L/H (1–3),
dimensionless strength gradients Hk/Su0 (0–8), normalized
widths of trench bottom a/H (0.25–0.75, for the horizontal
seabed) and the volume ratios of R ¼ Qsu/Qsd (0–1, for the
inclined seabed) were considered, where Qsu and Qsd are the
volumes of excavated soils stacked on the upside and down-
side of TBSPs, respectively, and Qsu þ Qsd ¼ Q. The calcula-
tion of excavation volumes Q for various conditions is given
in the Appendix. qs, qsu and qsd are the surcharge loads of
excavated soils in different cases, which evenly distribute
onto the seabed surface near trenches. The undrained stabil-
ity of TBSPs in nonhomogeneous clay was represented by
an undrained stability factor c0 HFs/su0, where Fs is safety fac-
tor obtained by strength reduction technology.
For trenches with horizontal seabed (i.e., seabed inclin-
ation angle a ¼ 0 ), half of the excavated soil would be
stacked on each side of trenches (i.e., R ¼ 1). Therefore, half
model was sufficient for the numerical simulation due to the
geometric and physical symmetries (Figure 2a). The normal-
ized area of the stacked soil b/H ¼ 1 was assumed, and the
surcharge of soils was expressed as qs ¼ Qc0 /2b. For inclined
seabeds, a ¼ 5 was considered for modeling the seabed gen-
tle slopes (Figure 2b). It was worth noting that excavated
soils during stacking to the downside of the trench are
exerted with a certain downward inertia force of the same
direction to sliding. Consequently, the area of soils stacked
on the downside bd is inevitably larger than that of the
upside bu. For this reason, bu/H ¼ 1 and bd/H ¼ 2 were con-
sidered in this study, and the excavated soil surcharges were
 MARINE GEORESOURCES & GEOTECHNOLOGY 3

Figure 3. Numerical model of the problem in OptumG2: (a) horizontal seabed Figure 4. Typical upper and lower bound results (a ¼ 0 , Hk/su0 ¼ 0, L/H ¼ 2.5).
and (b) inclined seabed.

expressed as qsu ¼ Qsuc0 /bu and qsd ¼ Qsdc0 /bd, respectively.

On the other hand, due to the asymmetry of trenching in
inclined seabed, a global stability of the trench was deter-
mined from the side whose stability factor is smaller, i.e.,
c0 HFs/su0s ¼ c0 HFs/su0, min. Stability factor of the upside
trench slopes would be much less than that of the downside if
the volume ratio R is still taken as unity, and the global stabil-
ity of the trench would be significantly reduced. In addition,
serious back-silting would occur during construction due to
excessive excavated soils stacked on the upside slope of the
trench when R ¼ 1. In this paper, the two problems mentioned
above were solved by optimizing the value of R.

Methodology of analysis
Sloan (2013) clearly demonstrated that FELA is a powerful
numerical method, which can analyze various complex sta-
bility problems in geotechnical engineering with strength
reduction technology. In this study, the FELA software,
OptumG2 (Krabbenhoft, Lyamin, and Krabbenhoft 2017), is
adopted to compute the safety factors of TBSPs. It is worth
noting that the OptumG2 software employs the general pur-
pose optimization solver, SONIC (Krabbenhoft, Lyamin, and
Sloan 2006), which is based on the interior-point method
(Wright 2005; Krabbenhoft et al. 2007), to calculate both the
upper and lower bound solutions, so as to bracket the exact
solution. It is recognized that the upper and lower bound
solutions would be extremely close when the number of ele-
ments and adaptive steps reaches a certain level. The corre-
sponding real solutions could be regarded as the average of
the bound solutions. In addition, the OptumG2 software is
equipped with a powerful feature of mesh adaptivity. The
objective of mesh adaptivity is to efficiently refine the com-
putational mesh by dividing the elements that make the larg-
est contribution to the overall numerical error. In the problem
Figure 5. Comparison of the averaged bound solutions with and without the
surcharge of excavated soils (a ¼ 0 , Hk/su0 ¼ 0, a/H ¼ 0.5, L/H ¼ 2.5).
considered here, the numerical error is measured by the bound
gap, for which it is possible to identify the contribution of
each element in the mesh (Ciria, Peraire, and Bonet 2008). In
this study, the shear dissipation control to the bounds gap was
used for the adaptive mesh refinement. The failure mechanism
of trench slopes can be decided directly through the shear dis-
sipation zone and adaptive mesh without assuming the form
of slip surfaces in advance.
Numerical models of the problem in OptumG2 are
shown in Figure 3, where standard boundary conditions
consisting of roller in two sides and fixed bottom are
applied. Trenching machine loads are exterted on the seabed
through skids (or pedrails) which are modeled by rigid
plates. The model domain is large enough to contain the
4 L. KE ET AL.

Figure 6. Final adaptive meshes and shear dissipation contours considering

uniform strength of soil for various trench slope angles b (Hk/su0 ¼ 0, a/ Figure 7. Final adaptive meshes and shear dissipation contours considering lin-
H ¼ 0.5, L/H ¼ 3). early increasing strength of soil for various trench slope angles b (Hk/su0 ¼ 4,
a/H ¼ 0.5, L/H ¼ 3).

whole shear dissipation zones and prevent them from inter-

L/H ¼ 2.5. Various trench slope angles b (45–90 ) and nor-
secting the lateral and bottom boundaries. For trenches with
malized widths of the trench bottom a/H ¼ 0.25, 0.5 and
horizontal seabed, as shown in Figure 3a, only the half
0.75 were studied. It was found that the upper and lower
model is concerned due to symmetry. Based on various
bound results were all extremely close with respect to vari-
numerical simulations, the optimal model dimensions are
ous parameters, which bracketed the true solutions within
5 H in horizontal and 3.5 H in vertical, respectively, and the
0.755% [100(UB – LB)/2LB ¼ 100 (3.497 – 3.445)/
depth below the bottom of the trench is 1.5 H. As the depth
(2  3.445) ¼ 0.755)]. Consequently, an average value of the
of seawater has no influence on the calculation results, the
bound results was calculated and used in the following
water depth above the trench is taken as 1 H for simplifica-
discussions.
tion. The soil and water are discretized into triangular ele-
Figure 5 presents the comparison of the averaged bound
ments in both upper and lower bound limit analyses. The
solutions with and without the surcharge load of excavated
initial mesh of 2000 elements was adapted and increased to
soils for Hk/su0 ¼ 0, a/H ¼ 0.5 and L/H ¼ 2.5. A significant
a final mesh of approximately 6000 elements during five
difference between the stability factor with qs ¼ 0 and qs > 0
iterations. For inclined seabeds (Figure 3b), geometric sym-
is observed for various trench slope angles. Therefore, it is
metry does not hold. Thus the full model with 10 H in hori-
necessary to consider the surcharge due to excavated soils to
zontal direction is studied, and the number of total elements
prevent overestimation of the stability of TBSPs.
increased from 3000 to 9000 as compared with Figure 3a.
The other model parameters are the same as those of the
case with horizontal seabed. Stability of TBSPs with horizontal seabed
Effect of the trench slope angle
Results and discussions
The effects of trench slope angle b on the failure mechanism
Figure 4 shows the typical upper and lower bound stability of TBSPs are shown in Figure 6 (for uniform strength of
factor of TBSPs with horizontal seabed for Hk/su0 ¼ 0 and soil with Hk/su0 ¼ 0) and Figure 7 (for linearly increasing

Figure 8. Relationship between the stability factor and trench slope angle for horizontal seabed (a/H ¼ 0.25).
strength of soil with Hk/su0 ¼ 4), where a/H ¼ 0.5 and L/
H ¼ 3. The FELA results include the final adaptive meshes
and shear dissipation contours. It was found that the failure
surfaces are close to plane that traverses the trench slope
from the toe to the seabed surface (a toe failure) for
b ¼ 80 –90 with uniform strength of soils (Figure 6a, b)
and b ¼ 70 –90 with strength increasing linearly with depth
(Figure 7a–c). Since the loads are relatively far away from
the trench crest in this situation, the corresponding failure
modes are similar to that of bearing capacity near slopes where
a triangular active failure region usually appears in the soil
beneath the load. On the contrary, for smaller b, the trench
failure with uniform and linearly increasing soil shear strength
is different. For example, scenarios with b ¼ 60 –70 result in
a triangular passive failure region that appears beneath the bot-
tom of trenches and tends to uplift (a below-toe failure) for
uniform strength of soil. With a further decrease in b (e.g.,
b ¼ 50 ), the surcharge load qs becomes larger due to the
increased volume of excavation, and the distance between the
loads and the trench crest becomes smaller. Consequently, the
MARINE GEORESOURCES & GEOTECHNOLOGY 5
failure mode of trench slopes turns back to toe failure. While
the critical slip surface is approximately a circle surface and
deeper than that of b ¼ 80 –90 . In contrast, gentler slopes are
prone to a face failure for linear increase in soil strength (e.g.,
b ¼ 45 –50 in Figure 7). The plastic shear zone developing
from the seabed surface intersects the face of trench slope at a
certain distance from the toe due to a lower shear strength in
shallow layer of seabeds and a smaller distance between the
loads and the trench crest.
Figures 8–10 present the relationships between the
undrained stability factor c0 HFs/su0 and b for various nor-
malized width of trenchers, where Hk/su0 ¼ 0–8 and a/
H ¼ 0.25–0.75. It was noteworthy that the influence of b on
c0 HFs/su0 is different from traditional understanding. With
decrease in b, the computed c0 HFs/su0 increases at first and
then declines. There could be two reasons: (i) when the
trench depth and trench bottom width are fixed to meet the
design value, the excavation volume Q and the surcharge
load of soils qs would inevitably increase with decrease in b,
which could cause reduction of stability factor; (ii) for a
6 L. KE ET AL.
Figure 9. Relationship between the stability factor and trench slope angle for horizontal seabed (a/H ¼ 0.5).
certain width of the trenching machine, the distance
between loads and trench crests decreases with b, which
will also bring down the stability factor. More import-
antly, for various combinations of a/H, Hk/su0 and L/H,
the maximum stability factors were obtained within
b ¼ 70 –80 which could be used as a reference in engin-
eering practices. Note that these peak values shift slightly
to the left with the increase in dimensionless strength gra-
dients. Additionally, for larger value of Hk/su0, the stabil-
ity factors drop dramatically with the decrease in b when
b reduces to some threshold values, due to the fact that
the face failure has been constructed (Figures 8c, d, 9c, d,
and 10c, d).
Effect of the trenching machine width
The failure mechanisms affected by the width of trenching
machine are shown in Figure 11 (for Hk/su0 ¼ 0) and Figure
12 (for Hk/su0 ¼ 4), where a/H ¼ 0.5 and b ¼ 70 .
Obviously, for seabed soils with uniform strength, smaller
normalized trencher width (L/H ¼ 1.5–2.5) leads to a toe
failure (see Figure 11a, b). The range and depth of the crit-
ical slip surfaces increase gradually with L/H value because
of a larger distance between loads and trench crests. The
failure mode of the trench slope is a below-toe failure mech-
anism for L/H ¼ 3, and a triangular passive failure region
appears beneath the bottom of trenches with an uplifted ten-
dency (Figure 11c). However, once the soil becomes non-
homogeneous (Hk/su0 ¼ 4), the trench slope failure occurred
predominantly by a face failure mechanism for smaller nor-
malized trencher width (L/H ¼ 1.5 in Figure 12a). For a
larger value of L/H (e.g., 2.5–3.0), the failure was governed
by the toe failure mechanism (see Figure 12b, c).
The stability factor c0 HFs/su0 of TBSPs increases significantly
with the trenching machine widths for various trench slope
angles and dimensionless strength gradients (Figures 8–10). In
practical engineering of TBSPs, it may be more appropriate to
choose a trenching machine with a larger width.
 MARINE GEORESOURCES & GEOTECHNOLOGY 7

Figure 10. Relationship between the stability factor and trench slope angle for horizontal seabed (a/H ¼ 0.75).

Figure 12. Final adaptive meshes and shear dissipation contours considering
Figure 11. Final adaptive meshes and shear dissipation contours considering linearly increasing strength of soil for different normalized widths of trenching
uniform strength of soil for different normalized widths of trenching machine L/ machine L/H (Hk/su0 ¼ 4, a/H ¼ 0.5, b ¼ 70 ).
H (Hk/su0 ¼ 0, a/H ¼ 0.5, b ¼ 70 ).
8 L. KE ET AL.
Stability of TBSPs with inclined seabed
The shear dissipation contours for various ratios of R are
shown in Figure 13, in which the cases with b ¼ 70 ,
a/H ¼ 0.5, Hk/su0 ¼ 0 and L/H ¼ 1.5 are presented. The
upside trench slopes collapse (called upside failure) prior to
Figure 13. Shear dissipation contours corresponding to the various soil volume
ratios of R for inclined seabed (Hk/su0 ¼ 0, a/H ¼ 0.5, b ¼ 70 , L/H ¼ 1.5).
Figure 14. Relationship between the global stability factor and the soil volume ratio R for inclined seabed with uniform strength (Hk/su0 ¼ 0, a/H ¼ 0.5).
downside trench slopes when 0.25 < R  1 (Figure 13a, b).
In this situation, the stability of upside trench slopes plays a
key role in the global stability of TBSPs. On the contrary,
the downside failure is observed when 0  R < 0.25 (Figure
13d), and thus the global stability of TBSPs is governed by
the stability of downside trench slopes. Specifically, the
upside and downside failures are simultaneously observed
for R ¼ 0.25 (Figure 13c), and the global stability factor
accurately reaches the peak value. This extremum is what
we are most concerned about.
The stability factors of upside and downside trench slopes
are, respectively, calculated for various volume ratios R
(0–1), and the smaller value of the two is taken as the global
stability factor (i.e., c0 HFs/su0 ¼ c0 HFs/su0, min). Figures 14–16
present the relationships between c0 HFs/su0 and R for vari-
ous dimensionless strength gradients, in which the red
dashed line and the blue solid line correspond to the down-
side failure and upside failure, respectively. The effect of R
on the global stability factor c0 HFs/su0 is not obvious for the
larger trench slope angle b (e.g., b ¼ 90 ), and the value of
c0 HFs/su0 changes slightly only for smaller L/H. However,
for gentler slopes, a significant influence of volume ratio on
global stability factor is observed, and most of the curves
(c0 HFs/su0–R) present a conspicuous peak value. In general,
when R ¼ 0.15–0.3, the global stability factor of TBSPs
would roughly reach a maximum for different combinations
of b, Hk/su0 and L/H. In practical excavation engineering
with inclined seabed, an optimized volume ratio R should
be accepted, e.g., R ¼ 0.15–0.3. In this situation, the back-
silting problem can be solved due to lesser excavated soils
stacked on the upside of TBSPs.
 MARINE GEORESOURCES & GEOTECHNOLOGY 9

Figure 15. Relationship between the global stability factor and the soil volume ratio R for inclined seabed with linearly increasing strength (Hk/su0 ¼ 2, a/H ¼ 0.5).

Figure 16. Relationship between the global stability factor and the soil volume ratio R for inclined seabed with linearly increasing strength (Hk/su0 ¼ 4, a/H ¼ 0.5).

The effect of trencher width and slope angle on the sta- optimized value of volume ratio R (0.15–0.3), the c0 HFs/su0
bility factor can also be observed in Figures 14–16. The sta- increases with the decrease in b when b > 60 , and decreases
bility of TBSPs increases significantly with the value of L/H, with b when b < 60 , which is useful in practical
which is the same as that in horizontal seabeds. For an applications.
10 L. KE ET AL.
Conclusions
Undrained stabilities of TBSPs with horizontal/inclined sea-
beds were, respectively, investigated by using the lower and
upper bound FELA. An undrained shear strength su increas-
ing linearly with the depth from the ground surface was
considered. The surcharge load due to excavated soils and
the trenching machine load were considered simultaneously.
In this situation, several novel results about the effects of
trench slope angle b, normalized trencher width L/H,
dimensionless strength gradients Hk/su0 and the volume
ratio R (for inclined seabed only) on the stability and failure
mechanism of trenches were presented. The following con-
clusions were summarized:
1. For horizontal seabeds, the maximum stability factor of
trenches was obtained under b ¼ 70 –80 for various
combinations of a/H, Hk/su0 and L/H. Decreasing b and
increasing L/H may both result in the trench failure
mode being changed from toe failure to below-toe fail-
ure with uniform soil strength, and the depth of the
critical slip surfaces increasing gradually. A triangular
passive failure region appears beneath the bottom of the
trench and tends to uplift for the below-toe failure
mode. However, for seabeds with linearly increasing
shear strength with depth, smaller distance between
loads and the trench slope crest leads to a face failure
which is accompanied by a significant reduction in the
stability factor.
2. For inclined seabeds, the global stability of TBSPs can
be significantly improved by optimizing the volume
ratio R. The c0 HFs/su0 may roughly reach a peak value
for different combinations of b, Hk/su0 and L/H when
R ¼ 0.15–0.3. The trench slope angle should not be less
than 60 when R ¼ 0.15–0.3 is taken as an opti-
mized ratio.
3. The surcharge load of excavated soils is a major factor
to cause the instability of TBSPs, and increasing the dis-
tance between the loads and the trench crest will effect-
ively enhance the stability. In practice, if possible, it is
appropriate to choose a wider trenching machine or
remove the excavated soils away from the trench slope
crests by a certain distance.
Although the aforementioned results were obtained from
an approximate approach, they could be used with conveni-
ence for engineering practice. The study focused on a simple
problem of the stability of TBSPs during excavation and
prior to backfilling. Hence, future work might incorporate
some complex factors (e.g., excess pore water pressure, vari-
ous distribution shape of excavated soils) in order to opti-
mize the solutions.
Notation
The following symbols are used in this paper:
a inclination of seabed
b trench slope angle
c0 submerged unit weight of soil
su0 undrained shear strength of soil at the mudline
k strength gradient of soil
z depth measured from the mudline
su undrained shear strength (su ¼ su0 þ kz)
Hk/su0 dimensionless strength gradient
K0 horizontal earth pressure coefficient
Eu Young’s modulus of soil
l Poisson’s ratio of soil
Fs strength-reduced factor (i.e., safety factor)
c0 HFs/su0 undrained stability factor
H trench depth
a width of trench bottom
L width of trenching machine
B width of trenching machine skids (or pedrails)
b area of the stacked soil when a ¼ 0
bu area of the stacked soil on the upside of the trench
when a ¼ 5
bd area of the stacked soil on the downside of the
trench when a ¼ 5
Q total excavation volumes
Qsu, Qsd volumes of excavated soils stacked on the upside
and downside of TBSPs, respectively
qs surcharge load of soils when a ¼ 0
qsu surcharge load of soils on the upside of the trench
when a ¼ 5
qsd surcharge load of soils on the downside of the
trench when a ¼ 5
qt load from the weight of trenching machine
R volume ratio of the excavated soil stacked on the
upside and downside of trenches (R ¼ Qsu/Qsd)
lAI, lAD, etc length of Line AI, AD and so on in a simi-
lar fashion
S䉭AIK, S䉭ADF, etc area of Triangle AIK, ADF and so on in a simi-
lar fashion
Acknowledgment
The detailed and constructive comments by Zihao Zhao (Ph.D.
Candidate) are highly appreciated.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Funding
The work presented here was supported by the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41630638, 51609072,
51879091). These supports are gratefully acknowledged.
References
Bransby, M. F., D. T. Barlow, M. J. Brown, J. Davidson, S. Brankin,
and S. Robinson. 2018. The Performance of Pipeline Ploughs
Traversing Seabed Slopes. Ocean Engineering 148: 125–135. doi:
10.1016/j.oceaneng.2017.11.028.
Cathie, D., and J. Wintgens. 2001. Pipeline Trenching Using Plows:
Performance and Geotechnical Hazards. Proceeding of Thirty third
Annual Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, pp. 1–14.
Ciria, H., J. Peraire, and J. Bonet. 2008. Mesh Adaptive Computation
of Upper and Lower Bounds in Limit Analysis. International Journal
for Numerical Methods in Engineering 75 (8): 899–944. doi:10.1002/
nme.2275.
Dey, R., B. Hawlader, R. Phillips, and K. Soga. 2016. Modeling of
Large-Deformation Behaviour of Marine Sensitive Clays and Its

Application to Submarine Slope Stability Analysis. Canadian
Geotechnical Journal 53 (7): 1138–1155. doi:10.1139/cgj-2015-0176.
Dong, Y., D. Wang, and M. F. Randolph. 2017. Investigation of Impact
Forces on Pipeline by Submarine Landslide Using Material Point
Method. Ocean Engineering 146: 21–28. doi:10.1016/
j.oceaneng.2017.09.008.
Fan, N., T. Nian, H. Jiao, and Y. Jia. 2017. Interaction between
Submarine Landslides and Suspended Pipelines with a Streamlined
Contour. Marine Georesources and Geotechnology 36 (6): 652–662.
doi:10.1080/1064119X.2017.1362084.
Gao, F. P., and Y. X. Wu. 2006. Non-Linear Wave-Induced Transient
Response of Soil around a Trenched Pipeline. Ocean Engineering 33
(3-4): 311–330. doi:10.1016/j.oceaneng.2005.05.008.
Hadj-Hamou, T., and E. Kavazanjian. 1985. Seismic Stability of Gentle
Infinite Slopes. Journal of Geotechnical Engineering 111 (6): 681–697.
doi:10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9410(1985)111:6(681).
Hance, J. J. 2003. Submarine Slope Stability. Master thesis, University
of Texas at Austin, Austin.
Ji, J., C. Zhang, Y. Gao, and J. Kodikara. 2018. Effect of 2D Spatial
Variability on Slope Reliability: A Simplified FORM Analysis.
Geoscience Frontiers 9 (6): 1631–1638. doi:10.1016/j.gsf.2017.08.004.
Ji, J., C. Zhang, Y. Gao, and J. Kodikara. 2019. Reliability-Based Design
for Geotechnical Engineering: An Inverse FORM Approach for
Practice. Computers and Geotechnics 111: 22–29. doi:10.1016/
j.compgeo.2019.02.027.
Krabbenhoft, K., A. V. Lyamin, and S. W. Sloan. 2006. SONIC: A
Conic Programming Code for Plasticity Problems: Version 1.0/LA:
SOCP for Limit Analysis Authors, Edition illustrated Publisher
University of Newcastle–Centre of Full Employment and Equity.
Krabbenhoft, K., A. V. Lyamin, S. W. Sloan, and P. Wriggers. 2007. An
Interior-Point Method for Elastoplasticity. International Journal for
Numerical Methods in Engineering 69 (3): 592–626. doi:10.1002/
nme.1771.
Krabbenhoft, K., A. Lyamin, and J. Krabbenhoft. 2017. Optum
Computational Engineering (OptumG2). www.optumce.com
Li, Y. C., Q. Pan, and Y. M. Chen. 2013. Stability of Slurry Trenches
with Inclined Ground Surface. Journal of Geotechnical and
Geoenvironmental Engineering 139 (9): 1617–1619. doi:10.1061/
(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0000868.
Li, Y. C., Q. Pan, P. J. Cleall, Y. M. Chen, and H. Ke. 2013. Stability
Analysis of Slurry Trenches in Similar Layered Soils. Journal of
Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering 139 (12):
2104–2109. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0000958.
Liu, J., J. Tian, and P. Yi. 2015. Impact Forces of Submarine Landslides
on Offshore Pipelines. Ocean Engineering 95 (95): 116–127. 007. doi:
10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2015.04.
Puzrin, A. M., L. N. Germanovich, and B. Friedli. 2015. Shear Band
Propagation Analysis of Submarine Slope Stability. Geotechnique 66
(3): 1–14. doi:10.1680/jgeot.15.LM.002.
Puzrin, A. M., T. E. Gray, and A. J. Hill. 2017. Retrogressive Shear
Band Propagation and Spreading Failure Criteria for Submarine
Landslides. Geotechnique 67 (2): 1–11. doi:10.1680/jgeot.15.P.078.
Randolph, M. F., and D. J. White. 2012. Interaction Forces between
Pipelines and Submarine Slides – A Geotechnical Viewpoint. Ocean
Engineering 48 (7): 32–37. doi:10.1016/j.oceaneng.2012.03.014.
Recommended Practice DNV-RP-F107:Risk Assessment of Pipeline
Protection, Det Norske Veritas, October 2010.
Rodrıguez-Ochoa, R., F. Nadim, and M. A. Hicks. 2015. Influence of
Weak Layers on Seismic Stability of Submarine Slopes. Marine and
Petroleum Geology 65: 247–268. doi:10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2015.04.007.
Sloan, S. W. 2013. Geotechnical Stability Analysis. Geotechnique 63 (7):
531–572. doi:10.1680/geot.12.RL.001.
Wright, M. H. 2005. The Interior-Point Revolution in Optimization:
History, Recent Developments, and Lasting Consequences. Bulletin
of the American Mathematical Society 42 (01): 39–57. doi:10.1090/
S0273-0979-04-01040-7.
Wu, Y. X., X. H. Zhou, Y. F. Gao, L. M. Zhang, and J. Yang. 2019.
Effect of Soil Variability on Bearing Capacity Accounting for
Non-Stationary Characteristics of Undrained Shear Strength.
MARINE GEORESOURCES & GEOTECHNOLOGY 11
Computers and Geotechnics 110: 199–210. doi:10.1016/
j.compgeo.2019.02.003.
Yen, B. C., and R. L. Allen. 1977. Spreading of Submarine Slopes
Caused by Trenching. Marine Georesources and Geotechnology 2 (1-
4): 101–116. doi:10.1080/10641197709379772.
Zakeri, A., K. Høeg, and F. Nadim. 2009. Submarine Debris Flow
Impact on Pipelines—Part II: Numerical Analysis. Coastal
Engineering 56 (1): 1–10. doi:10.1016/j.coastaleng.2008.06.005.
Zhang, F., Y. Gao, D. Leshchinsky, Y. Wu, and N. Zhang. 2017.
Closed-Form Solution for Stability of Slurry Trenches. International
Journal of Geomechanics 17 (1): 04016029. doi:10.1061/
(ASCE)GM.1943-5622.0000672.
Zhang, J., Y. Gao, F. Zhang, Y. Wan, and M. Liu. 2018. Influence of
Anisotropy and Nonhomogeneity on Stability Analysis of Slurry-
Support Trenches. International Journal of Geomechanics 18 (5):
04018028. 0001151. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)GM.1943-5622.
Zhang, H., X. Luo, J. Bi, G. He, and Z. Guo. 2018. Submarine Slope
Stability Analysis during Natural Gas Hydrate Dissociation. Marine
Georesources and Geotechnology (1): 1–10. doi:10.1080/
1064119X.2018.1452997.
Zhang, W., D. Wang, M. F. Randolph, and A. M. Puzrin. 2017. From
Progressive to Catastrophic Failure in Submarine Landslides with
Curvilinear Slope Geometries. Geotechnique 67 (12): 1104–1119. doi:
10.1680/jgeot.16.P.249.
Zhao, H. Y., and D. S. Jeng. 2016. Accumulated Pore Pressures around
Submarine Pipeline Buried in Trench Layer with Partial Backfills.
Journal of Engineering Mechanics 142 (7): 04016042. doi:10.1061/
(ASCE)EM.1943-7889.0001093.
Zhao, H. Y., D. S. Jeng, and C. C. Liao. 2016a. Effects of Cross-
Anisotropic Soil Behaviour on the Wave-Induced Residual
Liquefaction in the Vicinity of Pipeline Buried in Elasto-Plastic
Seabed Foundations. Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 80:
40–55. doi:10.1016/j.soildyn.2015.10.004.
Zhao, H. Y., D. S. Jeng, and C. C. Liao. 2016b. Parametric Study of the
Wave-Induced Residual Liquefaction around an Embedded Pipeline.
Applied Ocean Research 55: 163–180. doi:10.1016/j.apor.2015.12.005.
Zhu, H. X., and M. F. Randolph. 2010. Large Deformation Finite-
Element Analysis of Submarine Landslide Interaction with
Embedded Pipelines. International Journal of Geomechanics 10 (4):
145–152. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)GM.1943-5622.0000054.
Appendix
The magnitude of the surcharge load from excavated soils is depended
on the excavation volume Q which can be determined through the
geometry of the trench section. Some symbols and the geometry are as
defined in Figure 17.
lAI ¼ lAD ¼ a=2 þ Hcot b (A1)
lAK ¼ ðlAI sin bÞ= sin ðb þ aÞ (A2)
lAF ¼ ðlAD sin bÞ= sin ðb  aÞ (A3)
lKJ ¼ lAK sin a; lAJ ¼ lAK cos a (A4)
Figure 17. Cross-section of the TBSP within inclined seabed.
12 L. KE ET AL.

lEF ¼ lAF sin a; lAE ¼ lAF cos a (A5) volume Q per unit length of trench is equal to the area of trench
section S
SDAIK ¼ ðlAI lKJ Þ=2 (A6) Q ¼ S ¼ SKGCF ¼ SIGCD SDAIK þ SDADF (A9)

Especially, for the horizontal seabed (a ¼ 0 ), the excavation volume
SDADF ¼ ðlAD lEF Þ=2 (A7) Q is expressed as

Q ¼ S ¼ SIGCD ¼ aH þ H2 cot b (A10)

SIGCD ¼ aH þ H2 cot b (A8)
Where the meaning of lAI, S䉭AIK and the others is shown in The excavation volume Q for various cases can be conveniently cal-
the Notation. In two-dimensional perspective, the excavation culated through Matlab or Excel.

View publication stats