Abstract
Rockfall impact is one of the fatal hazards in pipeline transportation of oil and gas. The deformation of oil and gas pipeline caused by rockfall impact was investigated using the finite element method in this paper. Pipeline deformations under radial impact, longitudinal inclined impact, transverse inclined impact, and lateral eccentric impact of spherical and cube rockfalls were discussed, respectively. The effects of impact angle and eccentricity on the plastic strain of pipeline were analyzed. The results show that the crater depth on pipeline caused by spherical rockfall impact is deeper than by cube rockfall impact with the same volume. In the inclined impact condition, the maximum plastic strain of crater caused by spherical rockfall impact appears when incidence angle α is 45°. The pipeline is prone to rupture under the cube rockfall impact when α is small. The plastic strain distribution of impact crater is more uneven with the increasing of impact angle. In the eccentric impact condition, plastic strain zone of pipeline decreases with the increasing of eccentricity k.
Highlights
Long-distance oil and gas pipelines are usually laid underground, while the pipelines are laid on the ground when they go across valleys, rivers, swamps, deserts, permafrost, and other regions [1]
If oil and gas pipelines are elastic-plastic materials, high strain and strain rate effect should be taken into consideration as these may be significant during rockfall impact condition [7]
The FE models of oil and gas pipelines impacted by spherical and cube rockfalls were established in this paper
Summary
Long-distance oil and gas pipelines are usually laid underground, while the pipelines are laid on the ground when they go across valleys, rivers, swamps, deserts, permafrost, and other regions [1]. Research on pipeline deformation caused by rockfall impact is important for the design, protection, and safety assessment of pipelines. One is to simplify the rockfall to spherical structure He et al [4] and Wang et al [5] studied the dynamic response problem of the shed-tunnel structure under the rockfall impact. Another is to simplify the rockfall to cube structure. Xiong et al [2] and Deng et al [6] analyzed the dynamic response of buried pipes when the cube rockfall impacted the ground by numerical simulation. The deformation and plastic strain of pipeline were discussed
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