Session: SE-07-01 Seismic Evaluation of Systems, Structures and Components

Paper Number: 123750

123750 - Numerical Study on Failure Length Evaluation of Buried Continuous Pipelines Crossing Strike-Slip Faults 

Buried pipelines are commonly used to carry water, oil and natural gas. The length of buried pipelines often extends thousands of meters. Inevitably there is a high probability that the pipeline will cross the seismic faults, especially in countries with seismic zones. Once an earthquake occurs and leads to the permanent displacement of the ground, the buried pipelines may fail or be damaged. This will affect the operation of social and economic activities. Therefore, the pipelines play an important role in societies, industries and economies, and are often referred to as lifelines. So far, the post-earthquake walkdown and inspections have been standard operation procedure for supplier of water, oil and natural gas. Through the visits and inspections, pipe segment with leaking contents or damage might be found and can be discovered and repaired immediately. For those pipe segments with severe deformation but no leakage or damage, it is difficult to find them through the walkdown and inspections. The purpose of this study is to use numerical approaches to find out the relationship between the pipeline failure length and the fault displacement of strike-slip faults for various sizes of pipelines. The research results can provide reference for water, oil, and natural gas suppliers, and can develop a more reliable post-earthquake inspection mechanism to identify pipe segments those are on the verge of failure.

Presenting Author: Wei-Hung Hsu National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering, NARLabs

Presenting Author Biography: Dr. Hsu is an Assistant Researcher of the National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE), where he has been since 2015. His study topics were focused on the seismic evaluation for the non-structural components and systems in nuclear power plants and renewable power systems. In recent years, he expanded his research work to the seismic effect on liquid sloshing behavior of liquid storage tanks and the buried pipelines.

Authors:

Wei-Hung Hsu National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering, NARLabs
Juin-Fu Chai National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering, NARLabs
Hsuan-Chih Yang National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering, NARLabs
Che-Yu Chang National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering, NARLabs
Wei-Kuang Chang National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering, NARLabs