Design charts for pipelines under longitudinal soil loading

Abstract

Buried pipelines are important part of the infrastructure systems. These pipelines extent long distance and cover wide areas where they may be exposed to several hazards. This study presents design charts for the pipelines under longitudinal soil loading, such as lateral spreading due to liquefaction after an earthquake or landslides. The water pipeline damages in Christchurch, New Zealand after the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquake sequence can be given as an example. Performance of buried pipelines during this type of loading is affected by many factors related to geotechnical properties of the surrounding soil and physical properties of pipe itself and its coating. Also the extent of moving ground and the magnitude of ground movement are important. Design charts (abaques) are expected to help engineers design straight continuous pipelines or analyse pipeline performance for expected longitudinal ground movements without performing finite element analysis or using analytical models.