Sixth International Conference of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering

16-18 May 2011 Tehran, Iran

A StateoftheArt Review on Fault Crossing Buried Pipeline Analysis

M.H. Erami1, M. Miyajima2, A. Fallahi3
Earthquake Engineering Lab., Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan, mherami@stu.kanazawa-u.ac.jp 2 Earthquake Engineering Lab., Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan, miyajima@t.kanazawa-u.ac.jp 3 Department of Civil Engineering, Azarbaijan University of Tarbiat Moallem, Tabriz, Iran, fallahi@azaruniv.ac.ir
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ABSTRACT
One of the most important seismic hazards on buried pipeline systems is damages due to effects of fault movements on pipelines which cross them. According to wide spread of pipelines and consequent high probability of this phenomena, analysis of pipelines in such a situation is one of the most important aims of researchers who are studying on pipeline systems seismic performance. Herein, we tried to provide a stateoftheart review on the all kinds of attempts done to understand and analyze the performance of continuous and segmented buried pipelines at crossing active faults and most effective parameters on this phenomena. In this way, methods of analysis, methods of pipe modelling and effective assumptions used in recent researches to understand the response of buried pipelines at intersection with active faults as well as their advantages and deficiencies are introduced. Moreover, behaviour of continuous and segmented buried pipelines and their axial and bending stresses/strains under different parametric variations such as amount of fault relative movement, Soil properties, relative depth of burial (ratio of burial depth to pipe diameter), trench configuration, pipelinefault intersecting angle, effective unanchored length, material properties and ratio of pipe diameter to its thickness (D/t) are reviewed. Finally, a summary of these parameters typical effects on buried pipeline performance are issued based on review subjects, some outlines are suggested for future researches.

Keywords: Buried Pipeline, Fault crossing, Analytical & FEM Model, Parametric Behaviour. 1. INTRODUCTION
Response of a fault crossing buried pipeline due to statically assumed movement of fault will change by considering dynamic nature for this phenomenon. Compared to the pipeline responses caused by fault movement itself, these changes are small enough to be neglected. Although, it means that static analysis of fault crossing buried pipeline is enough to get adequate results, with no considerable loss of accuracy, but imprecise properties of soil as surrounding continuum for the pipe in addition to infinite degree of statically indeterminate nature of soilpipe interaction keeps this problem too complicated to be solved in a full analytical way. Hence, it is inevitable to conduct various kinds of experimentations in form of physical model and computer aided simulation to issue, verify and improve the principles for estimating the behaviour of fault crossing buried pipeline and formulating its response. In last four decades, starting with Newmark and Hall (1975) [1], many individuals have studied on the fault crossing buried pipeline problem. And this text, as a brief review on these studies, introduces the most progressive and advantageous analytical solutions, numerical computerSEE6 / 1 / IIEES

aided simulations and physical models have been tried by researchers as well as their most effective assumptions and also findings. Finally, with a summary on their discussions and conclusions some outlines are issued for future works.

2. METHODS OF MODELLING
Modeling of new arisen engineering problems has evident effect in their solving evolution. And earlier researchers on them, who are dealing with a too unknown problems to be solved in a direct full analytical way, use reasonable simplicity assumptions to reduce physical concept of the event to simple and rough analytical model which can be described by initial known principles without any considerable deficiency occurrence in original problem. Then, during the time, studies on the event will be continued by issuance some numerical models to find out the most effective parameters, their way of influence and also evaluation of the procedures by comparing their calculated and corresponding observed values due to real cases or experimental tests. And based on these findings, later researchers will try to issue more accurate analytical models and this improvement way will continue alternatively between analytical and numerical models until getting to a reasonably exact one and finally, principle establishment for considered event. Modeling of fault crossing buried pipeline, as an imprecise and complicated engineering event, has a similar unfinished evolution history and herein we will have a brief review on the attempts done in this way which has started by Newmark and Hall in 1975 and continued by many individuals all around the world. 2.1 ANALYTICAL AND SEMI-ANALYTICAL MODELS Although many attempts have been done to formulate the behaviour of buried pipelines subjected to movement of fault which is crossed by them but the most important analytical procedures issued for this phenomena, can be mentioned as follows: Newmark-Hall procedure (1975) Newmark and Hall [1] were the first to study on the fault crossing buried pipeline problem for the cases of inducing the pipe to tensile deformation due to fault movement. They modeled a pipe crossing a right lateral strike-slip fault (figure 1) and assumed pipeline is firmly attached to soil at anchor points and neglected the bending stiffness of pipe as well as its lateral interaction with soil. And as a result, they concluded that pipeline responds to the fault movement through axial deformation between the effective anchor points [2],[3].

Figure 1. Pipeline analysis model proposed by Newmark and Hall [16]

Kennedy et al. procedure (1977) Kennedy et al. [3] improved Newmark-Halls method for evaluating the pipeline maximum tensile strain in strike-slip and normal faults by considering the lateral soil forces on the pipeline and resulting curvature and associated strains. But since they neglected the pipe bending stiffness because of considerable decreasing effect of large axial strain on it, results obtained using this method would be reasonably accurate as long as the estimation of the bending strains are such that the deformation can be considered to arise from axial elongation only[2],[3].

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Wang and Yeh Procedure (1985) Wang and Yeh [4] tried to overcome Kennedy et al.s considerable shortcoming about pipe bending stiffness. Their methodology refers only to strike-slip faults and relies on partitioning the pipeline into four distinct segments (Figure 2): two segments in the high curvature zone on both sides of the fault trace, and other two segments outside this zone. The latter segments are treated as beams-on-elastic foundation, while the former ones are assumed to deform as circular arcs, with a radius of curvature calculated from the equations of equilibrium and the demand for continuity between adjacent segments. Although clearly advanced, compared to the Kennedy et al.s methodology [3], Wang and Yeh had some gaps in their work with ignoring the unfavorable effect of axial force on pipe bending stiffness and most critical combination of axial and bending strains at the end of the high-curvature zone (points B and D in Fig. 2) [6].

Figure 2. Pipeline analysis model proposed by Wang and Yeh [5]

Karamitros et al. Procedure (2006) Methodology introduced by Karamitros et al. [6] for analysis of pipeline crossing the strike-slip faults was based on Wang-Yeh model with some essential refinements came from taking into account the axial and transversal soil-pipe interaction and also material nonlinearity by using a bilinear stress-strain relationship. Karamitros et al. used this relationship to obtain maximum bending moment and axial force in the section of pipeline with maximum bending. They also calculated maximum bending moment by elastic beam theory and axial force by compatibility between geometrically required and the stress-induced elongation. And, during their iterative analysis, a convergence is sought between corresponding values of these parameters obtained from two aforesaid ways. Although the work by Karamitros et al. [6] is a substantial advance in semi-analytical pipeline models, but some shortcomings are pointed out by later researchers for this method. In addition to neglecting the elongation caused by pipe bending in calculation of axial force, there is a physical meaning deficiency for combination of bending strains according to the elastic beam theory and second-order effects. They introduced this combination for taking in to account the effect of axial force on bending stiffness [6],[7]. Trifonov-Cherniy Procedure (2010) Trifonov-Cherniy method [7] as latest semi-analytical model for the stressstrain analysis of a pipeline crossing active strike-slip and normal faults is based on concepts of existing analytical and semi-analytical methodologies. They improved Karamitros et al.s model by introducing the effect of the axial force on the bending stiffness directly in the equations of equilibrium of the pipe segments in high curvature zones on both sides of the fault and using no symmetry condition about the intersection point, allowing for different types of fault kinematics to be analyzed. They also, introduced the parameter, characterizing the effect of the axial force on bending stiffness. This parameter can be used to track the pipeline behaviour and assess the applicability of more simple analytical models, like the one proposed by Kennedy et al. [5],[7]. ORourke-Trautmann (1981) Not as comprehensive as above mentioned procedures for tacitly continues pipelines, ORourke and Trautmann developed a simplified analytical model for evaluating the response of segmented pipelines subject to fault offset. They assumed that segments are rigid and joints accommodate the ground deformation. By considering these assumptions, they introduced the ratio of lateral deformation capacity of pipeline joint to its axial pull out deformation capacity as

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optimal intersection angle between pipeline axis and fault trace. They showed that the pipeline would fail, respectively, by joint pull-out and bending for intersection angle less and larger than optimal values [3]. 2.2 NUMERICAL MODELS By using high performance computers in conducting numerical models, in addition to cable or beam elements, used in analytical models, it is possible to simulate the pipe as accurate and complicated element as shell. And hence, researchers are be able to investigate the pipeline behaviour after taking place the large deformation or even failure in its cross section. But, analysis of full affected pipeline under fault movement as an element like shell needs too much time and digital memory. Therefore, some researchers tried to introduce some solutions to overcome this problem by replacing some portions of pipeline with an efficient substituting element instead of shell, without considerable deficiency in accuracy of study results. Used methods for numerical modeling of fault crossing buried pipeline is discussed in the next section, meanwhile introducing studies on parametric behaviour of pipeline And herein, we introduce two of recently done attempts in this way for continues and segmented pipeline. Kuwata et al. procedure (2007) Following the studies of Ivanov and Takada [8],[9] and with the main purpose of extending the domain of pipeline analysis through the failure and post failure stages, while taking advantages of the efficiency of simple elements in the modeling, Kuwata et al. [10] introduced Discrete Element Method (DEM) to study the buried pipeline behaviour subject to fault movement. As shown in figure 3, definition of two point elements in same coordinates as pipeline joint lets their method to be able of tracing the behavioural characteristics of the pipeline, such as detachment of joints with normal fault movements, compression rupture of joints in reverse fault movements, and bending failure at either joints or the pipe body under a perpendicular crossing angle. The solution algorithm is based on the direct integration of the uncoupled equations of motion of the elements. In order to minimize the computation time the pipe body is modeled by line elements and the basic mechanical properties of all common pipe joints are considered in this method.

Figure 3. Pipeline analysis model proposed by Kuwata et al. [10]

Liu et al. procedure (2004) Liu et al. [10] introduced an equivalent boundary method for analysis of large deformation in buried pipeline subjected to fault movement which can be applied to the ends of shell model using nonlinear spring elements. By using this method, the length of pipeline which is needed to be modeled as plastic shell elements and consequently, required memory and calculation time can be remarkably reduced. As shown in figure 4, the properties of pipe portion far away from the fault is considered as spring elements at equivalent boundaries and applied to two ends of shell model. When this equivalent boundary is adopted in shell FEM model, the length of pipe modeled by shell elements should be a little longer than the pipeline portion with large movement in the surrounding soil, and it can be referred to the length of laterally deformed portion of pipeline in

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Kennedy et al.s method [10].

Figure 4. Pipeline analysis model proposed by A. Liu et al. [6]

3. STUDIES ON PARAMETRIC BEHAVIOUR OF PIPELINE

Ivanov and Takada (2003) Ivanov and Takada [9] by using a method based on definition of two point elements in same coordinates studied the vulnerability of segmented ductile iron pipe crossing active faults. They derived fragility curves for the joint failure of a ductile iron pipeline of common diameters crossed by a fault at different locations and angles. The failure mode of the joints is commensurate with the loading regime except for the case of pure transversal loading and crossing point exactly at a joint, where the first failure is in tension instead of bending. The joints likely to break are those adjacent to the pipe segment crossed by the fault. If multiple failure occurs, one failure is at a joint and another in the pipe body in this sequence. Shakib - Zia Tohidi Study (2004) Shakib - Zia Tohidi [11], evaluated the effects of three dimensional fault movements on the nonlinear response of steel buried pipelines. The steel pipeline is divided into a number of segments, and each segment is modeled as a beam element. The beam elements are considered to have material and geometrical non-linearities. The surrounding soil is modeled by using nonlinear springs in the axial, lateral, and vertical directions. The fault is considered to be an oblique-slip, which has three-dimensional movements. They stated the effects of some important parameters on the response of buried pipeline crossing the oblique-fault movements, as follows: i) As the fault displacement becomes larger, more of the buried pipeline length will be affected. ii) The tolerable fault movement increases as the buried depth of the pipeline crossing the oblique fault reduces. iii) By increasing the pipe diameter and pipe wall thickness, the bearing capacity of the steel pipeline to the oblique-slip fault is increased. However, more attention is necessary to be paid to the ratio of pipe diameter to pipe thickness, in order to control the local stability of the wall thickness. iv) The reduction of angle of friction of soil results in decrease of applied force on the pipeline. Therefore, in order to pipeline performance in fault zone, the pipe can be sheltered with a suitable covering. v) The response of buried pipeline to the oblique-slip fault movements is highly influenced by the fault displacement. For the large value of fault displacement the bending moment of pipe can be neglected and the pipeline can be modeled as a flexible cable. vi) The maximum strain for large pipe-fault crossing angle (>60) is almost independent to fault slope angle. Therefore, in such cases, slope angle can be assumed zero and pipe crossing the oblique-fault can be modeled for a two dimensional fault movement. vii) Increasing in pipe-fault crossing angle () causes the reduction of the response of the steel pipeline in terms of maximum strain. Therefore, the pipeline should be installed in a way that the value of reaches its maximum [11]. Abdoun et al. (2008) Abdoun et al. (2008) [12] published the results of five pairs of centrifuge tests designed to investigate the influence of various factors on the behaviour of buried high-density polyethylene (HDPE) with (0.19~0.40 in diameter) pipelines subjected to strike-slip faulting. Parameters

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considered in their study were the soil moisture content, fault offset rate, relative burial depth (H/D), and pipe diameter. The centrifuge test results showed that pipe behaviour, specifically pipe strain, is nominally not affected by the soil moisture content and fault offset rate when the pipe is subjected to strike-slip faulting. On the other hand, the burial depth ratio (H/D) increasing from 2.8 to 6.0 can lead to larger axial and bending strains as well as closer peak bending location to fault tracing line and finally pipe diameter influence peak pipe strain by increasing the bending strain not axial one , and in some cases, the ground soil failure pattern [12]. Kim et al. (2009) Kim et al. (2009) [13],[14] by using the unique capabilities of Cornell University conducted two experimental tests on reinforced concrete segmented concrete pipeline. In one of these tests a total number of 13 partial-scale concrete pressure pipes (19 cm diameter and 86 cm long) were assembled as a continuous pipeline and buried in a loose granular soil and in another one five segments of a full-scale commercial concrete pressure pipe (244 cm long and 37.5 cm diameter) are constructed as a segmented pipeline under a compacted granular soil in the facility test basin (13.4 m long and 3.6 m wide). In both of the tests, Permanent ground displacement is simulated through the translation of half of the soil test basin and a dense array of sensors including linear variable differential transducers, strain gauges, and load cells are installed along the length of the pipeline to measure its response to ground displacement. Findings from firs test suggest that significant damage localization occurs at the ends of the segment crossing the fault plane, resulting in rapid catastrophic failure of the pipeline. Pipeline deformation was concentrated to the two ends of the pipe segment crossing the fault plane and severe damage at the ends of this segment is the primary cause of failure of the pipeline reducing it to a pin-ended segment. And in the second one, it was shown that, two evident failure modes of the pipeline joints were found by post-event visual inspection: combined rotation and contraction failure as well as compressive telescoping failure. Based on the analysis of the sensor data, a gradual failure sequence of the buried concrete segmented pipeline was also identified. Specifically, as the ground gradually moved, grout crushing occurred in the pipeline joints thereby allowing each concrete pipe segment to come into direct contact with the adjacent pipe. Grout crushing began at the joints adjacent to the fault line and propagated out toward the end joints consecutively. Once the grout was destroyed, the overall pipeline axial stiffness and flexural rigidity had reached its maximum. Finally, severe failure occurred at the joints nearest the fault plane [13],[14]. Vazouras et al. (2010) Vazouras et al. [15] using advanced finite element simulation tools, investigated the mechanical behaviour of buried steel pipelines crossing an active strike-slip fault. The pipeline is assumed horizontal and normal to the fault plane, an idealized case, which allows for the investigation of several soil and pipe parameters on pipeline deformation and strength. In particular, the effects of various cohesive and non-cohesive soil conditions (expressed through various values of soil cohesion, friction, and stiffness parameters (c, , E)) on the structural response of the pipe are examined, with particular emphasis on pipe wall failure due to wrinkling (local buckling) or rupture. An extensive parametric study is conducted, and numerical results are obtained for various values of D/t ratio and for X65 and X80 steel pipelines. In the majority of the cases analyzed, it is shown that the formation of local buckling due to excessive compressive strains at the pipeline wall is the governing mode of failure. It is concluded that in cohesive soils, softer ground conditions result in a large deformation capacity of the pipeline, whereas stiff ground conditions decrease the critical fault displacement. Similarly, in non-cohesive soils, loose sand conditions results in larger values of critical fault displacement than in dense soil conditions. The width of the fault slip zone was found to have non-important effects for the mechanical behaviour of the pipe. It was demonstrated that the presence of internal pressure results in a small decrease of the deformation capacity, due to early yielding of the steel material [15]. Zhao et al. (2010) Zhao et al. [16] conducted a 3-D soil-pipe nonlinear finite element model and the influences of

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the rupture mode, thickness and rigidity of overlying soil on the response of buried pipeline are analyzed. The numerical results show that the soil rupture mode determines the location of the large deformation or failure of the pipeline, and the plastic deformation of the pipeline occurs at the zone where the plastic deformation or rupture of the overlying soil appears. When the fault dip angle on bedrock is near 90, two plastic deformation sections of the pipeline appear with the development of overlying soil rupture. And the thicker the overlying soil is, the longer the plastic deformation length of the pipeline is and the less its strain is. The plastic deformation length of the pipeline decreases while its maximum strain increases with the rigidity of overlying soil increasing [16]. In addition to aforementioned results, final findings of some other investigations in terms of effective parameters influence on behaviour of fault crossing buried pipeline as well as their way of influence are represented in Table 1.
Table-1. Effective Parameters Influence on Behaviour of Fault Crossing Buried Pipeline
Pipe Properties Variable Parameter Function Parameter Tolerable Fault Movement Pipe Bending Strain Tolerable Fault Movement Pipe Bending Strain Pipe Maximum Curvature Pipe Maximum Strain Pipe Stress Method Dia. Unanchored Length Depth of burial Depth of Burial Friction Angle of soil Fault Displacement Fault Displacement Segment Length of Segmented Pipeline Analytical Simulation Analytical Simulation Simulation Simulation Experimental 42" 42" 42" 42" &12" 42" &12" 6" Mat. X-60 X-60 X-60 X-60 X-60 DI Function Type Increasing Increasing Decreasing Increasing Increasing Increasing Increasing Reference Acc. Kennedy 1977, [3] Acc. Kennedy 1977, [3] Acc. Kennedy 1977, [3] Acc. Kennedy 1977, [3] Acc. Meyersohn 1991, [3] Acc. Meyersohn 1991, [3] Takada et al. 1984, [3]

4. CONCLUSIONS
A state-of-the-art review on behaviour of fault crossing buried pipeline is presented. An overview on previously in detail mentioned findings of reviewed subjects are stated as follows: i) In terms of analytical procedures for modeling of fault crossing buried pipeline, although, most of earlier studies had focused on pipeline intersection with strike slip faults but latest researchers have used independent equations for each side of fault and overcome an essential shortcoming of using symmetry assumption which made the solution only applicable for strike slip faults. In addition, they have considered bending stiffness of pipe as well as axial and bending strains/stresses interaction allowing researchers to consider pipe as a more accurate element than cable or other imprecise elements without any bending stiffness which were used in earlier studied models. With these advances, it is felt, researchers will be able to study on behaviour of buried pipelines in crossing normal faults and compensate the existing deficiencies but the problem for analysis of pipeline in crossing the reverse faults is still remained and FEM is the only suggested way for analysis of pipe in such a situation. So, it can be considered as a seriously essential target for future studies. ii) Attempts for accurate numerical analysis of fault crossing buried pipeline by computer aided simulation have reached beyond the possibility. And now, researchers are trying to optimize the needed time and digital memory for such analyses by using alternative modeling approaches. Hence, in addition to procedures like discrete element method, they issued shell FEM with equivalent boundary which had replacing the complicated element like shell with simpler but efficiently equivalent elements in modeling of less important portions of pipeline as their main concept.

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However, a comprehensive approach with entire support of experimental tests or verified by comparison with previous real events has not issued yet and more attention can be paid on it in the future attempts. iii) A brief overview on parametric behaviour of fault crossing buried pipeline shows that effective parameters can influence the behaviour of pipeline in following ways: 1- Some parameters, like intersection angle between pipeline and fault, influence the nature of force applied on pipe and it can be harmful or useful for pipe according to pipe material characteristics. 2- Changes in magnitude of some parameters can lead to increase or decrease in applied force or deformation on pipe like what happens with increase in pipe diameter because of increase in interface surface with surrounding soil. 3- Influence of some parameters is in the form of changes in pipe restriction in its essential accommodations against applied force or deformation, like what changes in unanchored length does.

5. REFERENCES
1. Newmark, NM. and Hall WJ. (1975) Pipeline design to resist large fault displacement, US national conference on earthquake engineering, Uni. of Michigan, Ann Arbor , p. 41625. 2. TCLEE, Committee on Gas and Liquid Fuel Life- lines (1984) Guidelines for the seismic design of oil and gas pipeline systems, New York, ASCE. 3. ORourke, M.J. and Liu, X. (1999) Response of Buried Pipeline Subject to Earthquake Effects, Newyork, MCEER. 4. Wang, LRL. and Yeh, YA. (1985) A refined seismic analysis and design of buried pipeline for fault movement, Earthquake and Structural Dynamics,13:7596. 5. Kennedy, RP. and Chow, AW. And Williamson, RA. (1977) Fault movement effects on buried oil pipeline, Transport Eng J ASCE,103:61733. 6. Karamitros, DK. et al. (2007) Stress analysis of buried steel pipelines at strike-slip fault crossings, Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, 27:20011. 7. Trifonov, OV. and Cherniy VP. (2010) A semi-analytical approach to a nonlinear stress strain analysis of buried steel pipelines crossing active faults, Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, doi:10.1016/j.soildyn.2010.06.002. 8. Ivanov, R. and Takada, S. (2003) Analysis of jointed pipelines crossing faults by a purpose-made specialized program, Urban Safety Research Center, research report, 7:203212. 9. Ivanov, R. and Takada, S. (2003) Assessment of the vulnerability of jointed D.I.P. crossing active faults, JSCE Journal of Earthquake Engineering. 10. Liu, A. et al. (2004) An equivalent-boundary method for the shell analysis of buried pipelines under fault movement, ACTA SEISMOLOGICA SINICA, 17:150-156, ID: 1000-9116(2004) Supp-0150-07. 11. Shakib, H. and Zia-Tohidi R. (2004) Response of steel buried pipelines to three dimensional fault movements by considering material and geometrical non-linearities, 13th world conference on earthquake engineering, Vancouver, Canada, 2004, paper No. 694. 12. Abdoun, TH. (2008) Factors influencing the behaviour of buried pipelines subjected to earthquake faulting, Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Eng., 10.1016/j.soildyn.2008.04.006 13. Kim, J. et al. (2009) Behaviour of full scale concrete segmented pipelines under permanent ground displacements, University of Michigan. 14. Kim, J. et al. (2009) Experimental study on the behaviour of segmented buried concrete pipelines subject to ground movements, University of Michigan. 15. Vazouras, P. et al. (2010) Finite element analysis of buried steel pipelines under strike-slip fault displacements, Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, doi:10.1016/j.soildyn. 2010.06.011. 16. Zhao, L.; Cui, C. and Li, X (2010) Response analysis of buried pipelines crossing fault due to overlying soil rupture, Earthq Sci 23: 111-116, Doi:10.1007/s11589-009-0072-8.

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