Submarine Landslides and their impacts on Offshore Infrastructures

Project Information

SUBSLIDE

Grant agreement ID: 101022007

DOI

10.3030/101022007

Project closed

EC signature date 30 April 2021

Start date 1 June 2021

End date 31 May 2023

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 214 158,72

EU contribution

€ 214 158,72

Coordinated by

NORGES TEKNISK-NATURVITENSKAPELIGE UNIVERSITET NTNU
Norway

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SUBSLIDE (Submarine Landslides and their impacts on Offshore Infrastructures)

Reporting period: 2021-06-01 to 2023-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The overall research objective of SUBSLIDE is to develop a novel numerical tool capable of (a) simulating all stages of submarine landslides to understand the full mechanisms and (b) quantifying the impact forces of submarine landslides on offshore structures. Therefore, SUBSLIDE sets out four specific research objectives (ROs) and one training objective (TO) as follows:

RO1: Develop a fully coupled soil-fluid-structure MPM model capable of analysing pore water pressure development, landslide-induced waves, and the impact forces of submarine landslides.
RO2: Develop a critical-state soil model capable of reproducing the mechanical responses of the sediments as measured in laboratory.
RO3: Quantify trigger mechanisms (e.g. magnitude of earthquakes) of a submarine landslide and their influences on post-failure characteristics.
RO4: Quantify impact forces of potential submarine slides on anchors and mooring systems in Bjørnafjorden.
TO: Maximize my career prospects by developing multidisciplinary research skills in landslide hazard assessment along with complementary skills including grant writing, mentoring, and dissemination.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Submarine landslides are complicated because they involve a transition from a solid to a liquid phase during debris flow. Engineers currently use two different methods to assess the hazard of submarine landslides. First, they use finite element analysis to evaluate the marine slope. If the slope has high risk of failure, they then use CFD to predict the consequences of the debris flow. Our CFD-MPM model can do both in a single simulation. Moreover, it can provide insights into the triggering mechanism, the evolution of water pressure, temperature, and how marine sediments, seawater, and offshore structures interact with each other. These features have potential to improve risk assessment and mitigation strategies for submarine landslides.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Open-source codes developed in SUBLIDE have been maintained and manuals on GitHub open-source platform under an MIT license to maximise reproducibility and to eliminate any Intellectual Property Right barriers to industrial uptake of the results. Also, the numerical code was education tools leading to PhD and MSc theses through graduate supervisions. 2 Master thesis and 2 PhD students took direct benefits from using the code. The scientific findings have been used as preliminary results for other research proposals.

three phases of the numerical model