Contrastive Study on Finite Element Models of High-Strength Pipelines Crossing Active Faults

Abstract

There is a potential for major damage to the pipelines crossing faults, therefore the strain-based design method is essential for the design of buried pipelines. Finite element models based on soil springs which are able to accurately predict pipelines’ responses to such faulting are recommended by some international guidelines. In this paper, a comparative analysis was carried out among four widely used models (beam element model; shell element model with fixed boundary; shell element model with beam coupled; shell element model with equivalent boundary) in two aspects: differences of results and the efficiency of calculation. The results show that the maximum and minimum strains of models coincided with each other under allowable strain and the calculation efficiency of beam element model was the highest. Besides, the shell element model with beam coupled or equivalent boundary provided the reasonable results and the calculation efficiency of them were higher than the one with fixed boundary. In addition, shell element model with beam coupled had a broader applicability.