Study on the interaction of pipeline and soil during submarine plough trencher working

During submarine plough trencher working on the seafloor, the pipeline will have local suspended span due to lifting of the stinger. If the trencher's initial operating position is not appropriate, which can give rise to local large deformation near the fixed end of the pipeline, the pipeline will be damaged. Therefore, in order to keep that from happening, we set up a mechanical analysis model for the lifted pipeline, soil and their interaction, and then simulate the deformation of pipeline and the soil counterforce by finite element method (FEM). Through analyzing the counterforce and deformation distribution in soils with different stiffness, the initial operating position can be determined.