Protection of Pipelines in Shipping Lanes Available to Purchase

Design implies choice from among alternatives — for each alternative solution the designer should assess the total associated risk. The total risk is a composite of both the likelihood of various levels of hazards, and the uncertainty in the response behaviour of the system. The selection or decision process demands a weighing of the costs, risks, and benefits of the alternatives. Using an example, a probabilistic method is outlined for deciding upon the depth of burial of pipelines in shipping lanes. Producing a well-engineered solution to this problem involves the synthesis of many kinds of information. There is a requirement to analyse statistical information on the types of hazards, their frequencies and their possible growth. There is also generally a choice of measures that can be used to protect the pipeline. The choice of protective measure demands a weighing of costs, risks, and benefits and must also include any characteristic which leads to economic or other losses. In this paper each hazard is classified into five levels based on the amount of damage a hazard could impart on the system (this is termed the “demand levels”). These demand levels, when subjected to the system, result in various damage states. The damage states, which are assumed to be the cost of repair or replacement, are also represented in five discrete forms. These five general states of damage are defined in terms of such loss-related factors as level of repair cost, degree of the structural and non-structural damage and the fraction of people injured or killed.