Pipelines (made of various materials such as concrete, steel, or HDPE) buried at shallow depths are usually used for transporting sewage, water, oil, natural gas, power & communication lines, etc. These are life support systems and play a significant role in the development of countries. The pipelines usually extend over thousands of kilometers across the world. Sometimes they pass through regions with active seismic faults. These underground structures may be affected during an earthquake due to the propagation of seismic waves or permanent ground deformations (PGD). Compared to seismic waves, PGD has more potential to damage buried pipelines (O'Rourke, 2005.).
During the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the water mains broke, leaving the fire department with limited water resources to fight fires. During the 1987 Ecuador Earthquake, damage occurred to the Trans-Ecuadorian pipeline, and the loss was approx. Eight hundred fifty million dollars (Demirci et al., 2018). Therefore, a rigorous analysis of the strain and deformation in a buried pipeline subjected to fault movement is required.
This study aims to perform a series of tests to study the response of buried pipelines subjected to reverse fault movements. Furthermore, a strategy is discussed to experimentally investigate the use of rubber-sand mixture as a mitigation tool against pipeline damage. Different non-dimensional parameters affecting the soil-pipeline interaction and scaling laws are presented and discussed in detail. A description of the test setup, material properties, and instrumentation is also given. Results from these laboratory tests will then be used to develop and calibrate a 3D finite element (FE) model in ABAQUS software. A parametric study will be performed to develop new non-dimensional design charts. These proposed charts can calculate axial strains, bending moments, buckling locations, etc., depending on soil and pipeline properties, backfill materials, trench dimensions, etc.