Joint kinematics and sealing capacity assessment of ductile iron pipes under abrupt transverse ground movements

Abstract

Joint kinematic behaviour, i.e., joint rotation and axial translation, can partially help pipelines to accommodate abrupt ground movements, and cause leaking if joint service limit is exceeded, even without any structural failure. Kinematic behaviour of bell-spigot jointed ductile iron (DI) pipes and its influence on joint sealing capacity under abrupt transverse ground movements are investigated in this study. Firstly, a beam-on-spring finite element analysis on joint kinematics of DI pipes is conducted, in which different fault-pipe crossing positions are implemented. Based on simulated results, a modified joint kinematic solution incorporating pipe deflection and joint shear force under different fault-pipe crossing positions is proposed. Then, a Monte Carlo simulation (MCS)-based reliability assessment procedure for joint sealing capacity is developed. Sensitivity analysis is subsequently conducted to investigate the effects of uncertainties associated with initial axial translation, soil properties, and crossing positions on the joint sealing capacity, and the effects of different deterministic solutions are compared. The proposed method allows engineers to effectively evaluate how the joint sealing capacity of DI pipes changes with consideration of uncertainties when abrupt transverse ground movements are encountered.

Numerical Investigation and Prediction of Side-By-Side Tunneling Effects on Buried Pipelines

“…Once F is obtained, the modified settlement trough induced by tunnel 2, S 2-mod , can be estimated using Equation (5), where S 2 is the settlement above tunnel 2 before modification, and can be estimated using the same method for the settlement caused by tunnel 1, i.e., S 1 . Then, the total settlement S t can be obtained based on Equation (6).…”

“…Buried pipelines are widely used in water supply and sewer collection systems. With the construction of new pipelines and the increment in existing pipeline networks, it is inevitable for buried pipelines to go across differential ground movement areas induced by tunneling [1,2], earthquakes [3], landslides [4], faulting offset [5,6], etc. Among these geohazard environments, tunnel excavation is one of the most frequently encountered adverse conditions for buried pipelines.…”

Analytical fragility relation for buried cast iron pipelines with lead-caulked joints based on machine learning algorithms

“…Due to the relatively low stiffness, the seismic damage of CI pipelines usually occurs at joints, with main failure modes of axial pull-out and crushing under wave propagation or permanent ground deformation (e.g. Nair et al, 2018; O’Rourke and Liu, 2012; Qin et al, 2022; Qin and Wang, 2022; Wu et al, 2022). The joint failures of buried segmented pipelines were observed in many historical earthquakes, such as the 1994 Northridge, the 1995 Kobe, and the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes (Eidinger and Avila, 1999; Jeon and O’Rourke, 2005; O’Rourke et al, 2014).…”