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Seismic fragility of buried steel natural gas pipelines due to axial compression at geotechnical discontinuities

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Abstract

This paper presents an extended set of numerical fragility functions for the structural assessment of buried steel natural gas (NG) pipelines subjected to axial compression caused by transient seismic ground deformations. The study focuses on NG pipelines crossing sites with a vertical geotechnical discontinuity, where high compression straining of a buried pipeline is expected to occur under seismic transient ground deformations. A de-coupled numerical framework is developed for this purpose, which includes a 3D finite element model of the pipe–trench system employed to evaluate rigorously the soil–pipe interaction effects on the pipeline axial response in a quasi-static manner. One-dimensional soil response analyses are used to determine critical ground deformation patterns at the vicinity of the geotechnical discontinuity, caused by the ground shaking. A comprehensive parametric analysis is performed by implementing the proposed analytical framework for an ensemble of 40 recorded earthquake ground motions. Crucial parameters that affect the seismic response and therefore the seismic vulnerability of buried steel NG pipelines namely, the diameter, wall thickness, burial depth and internal pressure of the pipeline, the backfill compaction level, the pipe–soil interface friction characteristics, the soil deposits characteristics, as well as initial geometric imperfections of the walls of the pipeline, are systematically considered. The analytical fragility functions are developed in terms of peak ground velocity at the ground surface, for four performance limit states, considering all the associated uncertainties. The study contributes towards a reliable quantitative risk assessment of buried steel NG pipelines, crossing similar sites, subjected to seismically-induced transient ground deformations.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Horizon 2020 Programme of the European Commission under the MSCA-RISE-2015-691213-EXCHANGE-Risk Grant (Experimental and Computational Hybrid Assessment of NG Pipelines Exposed to Seismic Hazard, www.exchange-risk.eu). This support is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vienna Consulting Engineers ZT GmbH, Untere Viaduktgasse 2, 1030, Vienna, Austria

    Grigorios Tsinidis & Peter Furtner

  2. University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

    Luigi Di Sarno

  3. University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

    Anastasios Sextos

  4. School of Engineering, University of Sannio, Benevento, Italy

    Grigorios Tsinidis & Luigi Di Sarno

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  1. Grigorios Tsinidis
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Correspondence to Grigorios Tsinidis.

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Appendix

Appendix

A series of tables, summarizing the parameters required for the definition of the fragility curves developed in the framework of this study, i.e. the median peak ground velocities corresponding to the limit states, PGVm,i and total lognormal standard deviation βtot, are summarized in this Appendix (Tables 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26).

Table 9 Median peak ground velocities corresponding to the limit states, PGVm,i, and total lognormal standard deviation, βtot, for 406.4 mm pipelines embedded in soil deposit of depth H = 30 m
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Table 10 Median peak ground velocity corresponding to the limit states, PGVm,i and total lognormal standard deviation βtot for 406.4 mm pipelines embedded in soil deposit of depth H = 60 m
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Table 11 Median peak ground velocity corresponding to the limit states, PGVm,i, and total lognormal standard deviation, βtot, for 406.4 mm pipelines embedded in soil deposit of depth H = 120 m
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Table 12 Median peak ground velocity corresponding to the limit states, PGVm,i, and total lognormal standard deviation, βtot, for 508.0 mm pipelines embedded in soil deposit of depth H = 30 m
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Table 13 Median peak ground velocity corresponding to the limit states, PGVm,i, and total lognormal standard deviation, βtot, for 508.0 mm pipelines embedded in soil deposit of depth H = 60 m
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Table 14 Median peak ground velocity corresponding to the limit states, PGVm,i, and total lognormal standard deviation, βtot, for 508.0 mm pipelines embedded in soil deposit of depth H = 120 m
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Table 15 Median peak ground velocity corresponding to the limit states, PGVm,i, and total lognormal standard deviation, βtot, for 762.0 mm pipelines embedded in soil deposit of depth H = 30 m
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Table 16 Median peak ground velocity corresponding to the limit states, PGVm,i, and total lognormal standard deviation, βtot, for 762.0 mm pipelines embedded in soil deposit of depth H = 60 m
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Table 17 Median peak ground velocity corresponding to the limit states, PGVm,i, and total lognormal standard deviation, βtot, for 762.0 mm pipelines embedded in soil deposit of depth H = 120 m
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Table 18 Median peak ground velocity corresponding to the limit states, PGVm,i, and total lognormal standard deviation, βtot, for 914.4 mm pipelines embedded in soil deposit of depth H = 30 m
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Table 19 Median peak ground velocity corresponding to the limit states, PGVm,i, and total lognormal standard deviation, βtot, for 914.4 mm pipelines embedded in soil deposit of depth H = 60 m
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Table 20 Median peak ground velocity corresponding to the limit states, PGVm,i, and total lognormal standard deviation, βtot, for 914.4 mm pipelines embedded in soil deposit of depth H = 120 m
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Table 21 Median peak ground velocity corresponding to the limit states, PGVm,i, and total lognormal standard deviation, βtot, for 1066.4 mm pipelines embedded in soil deposit of depth H = 30 m
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Table 22 Median peak ground velocity corresponding to the limit states, PGVm,i, and total lognormal standard deviation, βtot, for 1066.4 mm pipelines embedded in soil deposit of depth H = 60 m
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Table 23 Median peak ground velocity corresponding to the limit states, PGVm,i, and total lognormal standard deviation, βtot, for 1066.4 mm pipelines embedded in soil deposit of depth H = 120 m
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Table 24 Median peak ground velocity corresponding to the limit states, PGVm,i, and total lognormal standard deviation, βtot, for 1219.2 mm pipelines embedded in soil deposit of depth H = 30 m
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Table 25 Median peak ground velocity corresponding to the limit states, PGVm,i, and total lognormal standard deviation, βtot, for 1219.2 mm pipelines embedded in soil deposit of depth H = 60 m
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Table 26 Median peak ground velocity corresponding to the limit states, PGVm,i, and total lognormal standard deviation, βtot, for 1219.2 mm pipelines embedded in soil deposit of depth H = 120 m
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Tsinidis, G., Di Sarno, L., Sextos, A. et al. Seismic fragility of buried steel natural gas pipelines due to axial compression at geotechnical discontinuities. Bull Earthquake Eng 18, 837–906 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10518-019-00736-8

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