PROBLEMS OF APPLICATION OF HIGH-FREQUENCY SUB-BOTTOM PROFILER TECHNOLOGY TO SUBMARINE PIPELINE INSPECTION

The Sub-bottom profiler is widely used to detect submarine pipelines, especially the burial depth and spanning height. However, the working principle of the device itself often causes distortion of detecting images and multiplicity of data under peculiar seabed topography. We, therefore, studied in this paper the interference wave features of pipes at various topographic features, such as slope, pit, bump and non-horizontal strata by forward modeling method in order to eliminate the traps in data interpretation. It is concluded that pipeline assessment should consider image and seabed topography, as well as sediment transport and other factors comprehensively. Image interpretation should be tested under the real underwater environment.