Instability of Man-Made Marine Infrastructures

Marine infrastructures, among others oil platforms, offshore wind farms, pipelines and cables, tidal Stream Energy systems, marine fishing gears, and mariculture facilities, are built to exploit marine resources. These structures are subjected to marine forces (wind, wave, and current), which may affect their stability. Failure of these structures (e.g. pipeline leakage) will cause pollution and may significantly disturb the marine environment, marine life ecology, and ecosystem functioning. At the same time, the installation of marine structures will alter the flow field, which will in turn affect sediment erosion and sedimentation at the seafloor. This may generate a turbidity layer near the seafloor, which will largely affect the benthic diversity and functioning. A better understanding of the marine flow-structure interaction will improve our predictions of the possible effects of marine structures on the marine environment. This Research Topic will consider theoretical analyses and numerical modelling studies with results from laboratory and field observations and experiments. This will allow a more comprehensive understanding of man-made structures in the ocean.

The goal of this Research Topic is to assess the stability of marine structures under marine physical forcing and the effect of installations of the marine structures on the marine environment. The stability of marine structures is affected primarily by marine environmental forces, such as wind, wave, tide, and current, as well as structure properties and seabed conditions. Due to the complex oceanic conditions and complex flow-structure-seabed interactions, it is not fully understood when and how man-made structures may fail. Meanwhile, the effects of the installed marine structures and the erosion of seafloor sediments due to shear flow and sediment liquefaction are poorly understood. Therefore, new techniques and modelling approaches are required and welcome contributions to this topic.

Particular but not exhaustive aspects of this topic are as follows:
• Hydrodynamics of marine structures under extreme oceanic conditions
• Stability assessment of marine structures
• Effect of flow-structure-seabed interaction on marine habitats and the ecology of organisms
• Generation structure-induced turbidity layers near the seafloor and their effects on marine life
• Seafloor sediment liquefaction and shear flow at the seabed
• Pollution of the marine environment caused by marine structures

Keywords: Man-Made Oceanic Structures, Hydrodynamics, Technical Structures and Marine Environment, Structure Stability and Failure

Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.