DEM-FEM based numerical analysis on mechanical responses of sandy soil and pipeline to seepage erosion

Abstract

Seepage erosion around the underground pipelines will produce various adverse influences on the stratum stability and the structural safety. It involves behaviours at three scales, that is, particle-scale, cell-scale and engineering-scale. The problem relies on the fact that finding general equations for the granular media is difficult due to the changing nature of how solids flow, so that the continuous approach is unavailable to directly describe the phenomenon. Hence, DEM simulations are firstly conducted in this study to quantify the relationship between the fine particle loss (ΔFC = 0, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 30%) and the mechanical properties of soil elements, upscaling particle to cell. Considering two initial fine grain contents (S6:4, S3:7), the empirical equations of soil mechanical parameters εve, E0, φ and c changing with the fine particle loss ΔFC are obtained by regression analysis. Then, based on the corresponding constitutive parameters of different erosional stages, FEM simulations at the engineering scale are conducted to analyse the structural mechanical response to the seepage erosion, upscaling cell to engineering. This study reveals the multiscale response of the seepage erosion in the sandy strata, and helps in providing the practical guidance for engineering application and the reference for the next multiscale parallel computation on this issue.