08-10-2014, 04:12 PM
The response of continuous buried pipelines to lateral spreading is studied mainly through the pipeline strain due to longitudinal and transverse PGD (Permanent Ground Displacements). The existing approaches of analysis of buried pipelines subjected to spatially distributed PGD are reviewed along with their results. A continuous pipeline resting on ground and subjected to transverse PGD and vertical settlement is modeled as a continuous beam resting on non-linear soil springs(axial, lateral and vertical) using SAP2000 structural analysis software. The responses so obtained are found to match reasonably well with those from the previous finite element model studies. The results show that the maximum strain induced in the pipeline is critically dependant on the width over which the ground displacement occurred. In addition, the pipeline is analyzed by both pseudo-static and dynamic analysis methods. The pseudostatic analysis underestimates the peak pipe strain compared to the dynamic analysis. Hence, for obtaining conservative force demands on the pipeline, the dynamic an