In this paper we investigate the interaction between a solitary wave and a thin vertical barrier. A set of laboratory experiments was performed with different values of incident wave height to water depth ratio, $H/h$, and the draught of the barrier to water depth ratio, $D/h$. While wave gauges were used to measure the reflected and transmitted waves, pressure transducers were installed on both sides of the barrier, enabling the calculation of wave force. The particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique is also employed to measure the velocity field in the vicinity of the barrier. A numerical model, based on the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations and the $k \hbox{--} \epsilon$ turbulence closure model, was first checked with experimental data and then employed to obtain additional results for the range of parameters where the laboratory experiments were not performed. Using both experimental data and numerical results, formulae for the maximum runup height, and the maximum wave force are derived in terms of $H/h$ and $D/h$.

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Crude oil export is the main business in Kuwait. To transfer the crude oil from land to the ships moored in deeper marine water, submarine pipelines are used. Kuwait is also planning to increase the export to 4.0 million barrel/day in the future and hence need more export terminals, which in turn need more submarine pipelines. One of the challenging problems here is selection of optimum burial depth of the submarine pipeline for the prevailing design condition and soil type. The optimum burial depth of submarine pipeline is the depth at which the pipeline will be stable during the design environmental conditions. It depends on the reduction of wave forces due to burial in the seafloor. Also, the wave forces on the pipeline at any depth of burial depend on the wave characters, hydraulic properties of the sea bed soil and all other marine environmental parameters. Physical modeling is used as tool for assessing the wave forces on the pipeline model for a wide range of wave conditions, for different burial depths and for four types of cohesion-less soil types from Kuwaiti coastal area, covering hydraulic conductivity in the range of 0.286 to 1.84 mm/s. It is found that for all the four soil types, the horizontal wave force reduces with increase in depth of burial, whereas the vertical force generally increases for half buried condition, mainly due to the significant change in the magnitude as well as the phase lag between the hydrodynamic water pressures on the top and bottom of the pipe. Among the soils, well graded soil is found to be good for half burial of pipeline, since the least vertical force is experienced for this soil type. On the other hand, uniformly graded and low hydraulic conductivity soil (like Al-Koot soil with hydraulic conductivity of 0.286 mm/s) attracts the maximum vertical force for half burial case. But, such soil type is found to be good for full burial or further increase of burial, since it is found to attract less vertical wave force, when compared to the soils with high hydraulic conductivity (1.84 mm/s from Shuaiba coast). From the detailed investigations and case study analysis, the minimum safe burial depth for a 1.0 m steel pipe is 1.5 m to 2.0 m for transporting crude oil in Kuwaiti marine environment. The results of this study can be used to select the minimum safe burial depth in a range of cohesionless soils and for a range of marine wave conditions. DOI 10.7603/s40632-014-0013-0 An approach to estimate the optimal depth of burial of crude oil pipelines for different marine conditions in Kuwait 44

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