Water current measurements for marine pipeline design

The stability of a marine pipeline which is exposed to lateral currents is one of the major concerns of the pipeline engineer. The design velocity in the bottom boundary layer dictates the amount of concrete weight coating which must be applied to maintain stability during the worst lifetime current conditions. As this submerged weight requirement has considerable effect on material cost and installation techniques, one of the early steps in designing the pipeline is calculation of the design currents. This value is traditionally derived from steady current data obtained along the pipeline route. The typical requirements of this data base are discussed.