NRL Mine Burial Experiments

Abstract

Seabed-structure interactions are responsible for the burial of heavy objects, such as mines, pipelines, concrete breakwaters, platforms, debris, and other objects on the seafloor. In low shear strength muds, these objects are known to bury at impact or to sink into the sediment if the buoyant weight of the object exceeds the bearing capacity of the seafloor. In higher energy sandy sediments, burial by scour and fill, momentary or cyclic wave-induced liquefaction, and seabed morphological changes (e.g., transverse bedform migration, changes in shore-rise and bar-berm conditions, sediment deposition) is common. Each of the possible burial processes will be discussed and an integrated, time-dependent object burial model is proposed. Results from six recent burial experiments using instrumented mines are used to document burial at impact and subsequent burial by biological processes, scour and fill, changes in near-shore bar morphology, liquefaction, and subaqueous dune migration.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 27, 2001
Accession Number
ADA403441

Entities

People

  • John Bradley
  • Kevin B. Briggs
  • Michael Richardson
  • Philip Valent
  • Sean Griffin

Organizations

  • United States Naval Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Sensors

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acoustic Detection
  • Bearing Capacity
  • Biological Processes
  • Boundary Layer
  • Data Acquisition
  • Detection
  • Detectors
  • Divers
  • Grain Size
  • Horizontal Orientation
  • Materials
  • Measurement
  • Optical Detectors
  • Orientation (Direction)
  • Physical Properties
  • Shear Strength
  • Underwater Acoustics

Readers

  • Coastal Oceanography
  • Geotechnical Engineering.