Impact action of submarine slides on pipelines: A review of the state-of-the-art since 2008

Submarine slides pose a serious threat to the safety of transmission pipelines in offshore petroleum engineering. This threat is mainly manifested in the fact that pipelines are subjected to a high external dynamic load or are displaced over a large distance under the devastating impact action of submarine slides. There is sufficient necessity for engineers, researchers, or policy regulators to better understand this threat towards more reliable design and protection measures for submarine pipelines. The objective of this study was to review the development of the research topic of the impact action of submarine slides on pipelines in the 15 years since 2008. Bibliometric analysis was first conducted to reveal the development and situation of the number, journals, and keywords of relevant literature on this research topic. Then, the main research methods in previous studies, including theoretical analysis, physical modelling, and numerical modelling, were summarized and examined. Next, evaluation approaches for the impact action under different theoretical frameworks were shown and compared. Finally, prospects for future study and practice were provided. •Development and challenges of the research of the impact action of submarine slides on pipelines are reviewed since 2008.•Evaluation on impact forces of submarine slides are applied and compared via some scenarios of submarine slide events.•Prospects of future study and practice of this research topic are presented.