Finite element analysis of a buried pipeline

Abstract

It is acknowledged that underground structures suffer less damage from earthquakes than structures on the ground surface. Recent earthquakes have damaged many lifeline structures (Bulson, 1985). Buried gas and water pipelines are also no exceptions. The damage or disruption of buried pipelines due to earthquakes may severely affect civil lifeline structures since it may cause fires, economic losses, and disable of lifeline networks.Subsequently, the seismic analysis and behaviour of buried pipelines have been investigated by many researchers. Most of the studies mainly deal with the numerical modelling of buried pipelines, soil-pipeline interaction, and earthquake induced pipeline stress. The seismic response analysis of buried pipelines is somewhat complex since it considers the three-dimensional dynamic analysis of the soil-pipeline interaction under multipoint earthquake excitation (Wang and Raymond, 1979). Therefore, a rigorous analysis is impossible. For these reasons, it is necessary to use elaborate and state-of-the-art test devices in order to estimate failure aspects of buried pipeline. However, Finite Element Methods (FEM) are also helpful for executing rigorous analysis for seismic response analysis of buried pipelines.Investigating geotechnical problems using FEM has been widely used in this research area for many years even though there are limitations for analysing such problems accurately. However, linear and nonlinear problems such as prediction of settlement and deformation between buried pipelines and soil is highly amenable to solution by FEM. For this reason, ABAQUS, which is used for general Finite Element Analysis (FEA), was chosen in order to estimate failure aspects of buried pipelines.The main purpose of this study is to understand failure aspects of buried flexible pipeline caused by earthquake through FEA. However, it is necessary to execute static analysis initially without considering seismic effects before computing dynamic analysis with the seismic effects because it is possible to understand seismic effects more easily by comparing static and seismic analysis. Therefore, in this dissertation, static and seismic analysis for buried pipeline caused by earthquakes will be reported simultaneously and compared with each other.

Date of Award	31 Dec 2010
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	William Craig (Supervisor)