A new rig for tests a nearly field scale has been built, and tests make it possible to investigate the details of the uplift process. An important new result is that the mobilisation distance required to develop the uplift resistance is much smaller than the industry has assumed. The investigation is continuing towards another new phenomenon, pipeline flotation in trenches as a result of the dynamics of the backfill process. The offshore petroleum industry is moving rapidly into very deep water. The first deep-water projects west of Shetland have been far surpassed by the Mensa project in 1640 m in the Gulf of Mexico and the Roncador project in 1870 m off the coast of Brazil.
Conventional practice is to lay the pipeline air-filled.
The pipe then has to withstand the high external pressure of the sea. Impact Damage Further work has been carried out to examine the effect of liquid fill on the deformations induced by impact on pipelines. This is one of a group of investigations related to aspects of the Piper Alpha disaster. He is principally concerned with scaling, with interactions between ice response and the hydrodynamics of the water during icebreaking, and with lead formation. Alessio, H., King, P.R., Jones, A.D.W. Capturing effective behaviour of capilliary influenced flow.