Strain analysis of buried steel pipelines across strike-slip faults

Abstract

Existing analytical methods of buried steel pipelines subjected to active strike-slip faults depended on a number of simplifications. To study the failure mechanism more accurately, a refined strain analytical methodology was proposed, taking the nonlinear characteristics of soil-pipeline interaction and pipe steel into account. Based on the elastic-beam and beam-on-elastic-foundation theories, the position of pipe potential destruction and the strain and deformation distributions along the pipeline were derived. Compared with existing analytical methods and three-dimensional nonlinear finite element analysis, the maximum axial total strains of pipe from the analytical methodology presented are in good agreement with the finite element results at small and intermediate fault movements and become gradually more conservative at large fault displacements. The position of pipe potential failure and the deformation distribution along the pipeline are fairly consistent with the finite element results.

Keywords

strike-slip fault / buried pipeline / nonlinear pipe-soil interaction / analytical formula / strain analysis