Professional skills and equipments in pipeline installation in complicated topography abroad

Worldwidely speaking, professional skills and equipments used in pipeline installation in complicated topography are remarkably differentiated in different countries, for instance, Germany, America and Italy possess systemic installation machinary available for the mountains. Germany, America, Japan and Sweden have special installation technology in rock engineering. America, Germany, Belgium and Libya have designed themselves apparatuses suitable for the desert region. America and Japan are good at the facilities in the waters and swamp areas. Russia and Canada have remarkable advantages in permafrost region, leading in the international market. Regarding the pipeline installation technology, in the waters and swamp, laybarge method, pipe drawing method, pipe pushing method, pipe floating pulling method, well point dewatering method, etc. are usually utilized. In permafrost region, pipeline installation scheme with the underground and/or aboveground pipelaying along roadbed are mainly carried out. Thermal probe technology is adopted to deal with the frost heaving and/or thawing of foundation, and finally, an artificial ground freezing excavation construction has been developed by Russia in recent years. In allusion to the gaps existed in the field in China, the paper puts forward the direction and methodology in the technical research in pipeline engineering.