SOME OCEANOGRAPHIC AND ENGINEERING CONSIDERATIONS IN MARINE PIPE LINE CONSTRUCTION

The proper design of a pipe line for the transport of gas or oil from sea to land requires the solution of a number of engineering problems either not encountered in pipe line engineering on land or found to be of a different nature in the marine environment than in the terrestrial environment. These include: (l) consideration of the vertical stability of the pipe, (2) consideration of the lateral stability of the pipe and its vertical risers in the presence of wave-induced forces, and (3) consideration of the longitudinal stability of the pipe in the presence of thermally induced tensile and compressive forces. The first of these considerations is treated in the present paper.