A 3-Dimensional Continuum ALE Model for Soil-Pipe Interaction

Abstract

Soil-pipe interactions when large ground movements occur are an important consideration in pipeline design, route selection, guide monitoring and reduce the risk of damage or failure. Large ground movement can be caused by slope failures, faulting, landslides and seismic activities. Such conditions induce large deformations of both the soil and pipe. Analyses of such behavior pose a significant challenge to capabilities of standard finite elements as the capability to analyze large deformations is required. This requirement is difficult to meet for Lagrangian-based code. New developments using ALE methods make it possible to determine soil and pipe deformation confidently for large displacements. This paper describes a study performed to investigate the mechanical behavior of a pipeline subjected to large soil movement. A 3D continuum modeling using an ALE (Arbitrary Eulerian Lagrangian) formulation was developed and run using LS-DYNA. The results are compared with published experimental data of large-scale test to verify the numerical analysis method. The analysis is further extended to analyze the soil-pipe interaction under permanent ground deformation such as those associated with surface fault rupture and landslides.

Large deformation coupled analysis of embedded pipeline – Soil lateral interaction

“…Various large deformation numerical methods have been developed and used to explore pipe-soil interaction, based on traditional finite element methods or the recently developed meshfree/particle methods. The former category includes the Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) approach [26,27], the sequential limit analysis (SLA) approach [28][29][30], and the Remeshing and Interpolation Technique with Small Strain (RITSS) method [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38] which falls in the category of Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) approach [39,40]. Wang et al [26] compared the performance of CEL, RITSS, and an efficient ALE (EALE) approach, concluding that for quasi-static problems with contact interfaces, the CEL model required smaller elements, so greater number of degrees of freedom, to achieve comparable accuracy of Lagrangian-based approaches (i.e., RITSS and EALE).…”

Nonlinear FEM strategies for modeling pipe–soil interaction

“…This project compiles the state-of-the-art in the matter, including several standards that treat the problem, the last techniques and advances in numerical simulations and laboratory tests until 2003. Fredj A. et al [2] presented several three-dimensional models of small straight and curved pipeline sections subject to lateral displacements. This way, a useful tool for the forensic analysis or special designs was developed.…”