Analytical method for the mechanical response of buried pipeline under the action of strike-slip faulting

Abstract

Buried pipelines are commonly damaged when laid across strike-slip faults, always leading to some level of destruction with fault movement. The moment of the neutral axis of a pipe section was obtained by integration, and the equations for the bending moment and the bending strain on a pipeline’s section were presented here, based on a trilinear stress–strain model. The calculation method for the lateral soil pressure and pipeline’s bending strain near the fault-crossing point was improved. Lateral soil pressure was regarded as being related to lateral pipeline movement and, for accurate calculation, this part of the pipeline was divided into finite element segments. An iterative process for solving for pipe bending strain was derived, and the algorithm and program for calculating bending strain and the potential damage position of the pipeline’s sections was compiled based on Matlab software. Compared with finite element method (FEM) results and the current standard method, in the situation of a pipeline being in tension under the action of a strike-slip fault (intersection angle < 90°), the result of the proposed method is in good agreement with FEM results. This shows that the proposed analytical method possessed a good reference value for the strain response analysis of tensile steel pipelines under strike-slip faulting.