Civil Engineering and Architecture Vol. 5(3), pp. 94 - 103
DOI: 10.13189/cea.2017.050304
Reprint (PDF) (611Kb)

Consideration on Design and Choice of Modern Pipelines for Use in Earthquake Areas

Frans Alferink ^1,*, Hugo Guerreros Cordóva ^2
1 Fluent Business group, Wavin Technology & Innovation (T&I), The Netherlands
² Fluent Business group, Mexichem, Peru

ABSTRACT

Pipelines for distribution of gas, water and for the collection of sewage are considered as part of the lifelines of the society. When buried in settlement prone areas or earthquake prone areas, they are loaded by prescribed displacements. In case of settlement prone areas, like in river-deltas, the deformations are slow but considerable. In earth quake prone areas the deformation are also considerable but they are happening in a much shorter period of time. Experience has been gained with the performance of pipelines under these conditions. Reference will be made to these experiences. The experiences show that the performance of the pipeline is very much related to the ability of the pipeline to follow the soil movements. That ability can be created by flexible joints and/or by using flexible and ductile pipeline materials. A beam model will be used in order to better understand the experience as well as to illustrate the relative importance of the pipeline characteristics, such as pipe diameter, type of jointing, Overall Design Coefficient, flexibility and ductility of the pipe system. It is realized that especially in an earthquake event, more types loading then just bending of the pipeline happens. Also longitudinal soil/pipe friction and changes in the volume in the pipe will occur. The latter event results are in a quite different loading for water pipes then for gas pipes. A model will be used to illustrate this. Moreover, the paper also triggers the attention to limit the risks of pipeline failure in case of a possible future earthquake event. When burying a pipeline system, also the potential mal-functioning of the system at an earthquake event, which may occur 30 years after installation, is buried with it. Designers do have the possibility to limit these risks. Designing systems using smaller diameters, making use of a robust type of jointing, and using sliding or partially sliding socketed joints instead of full welded systems, yield a lower risk of failure. Conclusions will be drawn and a table shown, listing the most relevant parameters affecting the risk level for the most common systems.

KEYWORDS
Earthquake, Flexibility, Ductility, Pipeline Deformation, Water Mains, Pipeline Jointing

Cite This Paper in IEEE or APA Citation Styles
(a). IEEE Format:
[1] Frans Alferink , Hugo Guerreros Cordóva , "Consideration on Design and Choice of Modern Pipelines for Use in Earthquake Areas," Civil Engineering and Architecture, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 94 - 103, 2017. DOI: 10.13189/cea.2017.050304.

(b). APA Format:
Frans Alferink , Hugo Guerreros Cordóva (2017). Consideration on Design and Choice of Modern Pipelines for Use in Earthquake Areas. Civil Engineering and Architecture, 5(3), 94 - 103. DOI: 10.13189/cea.2017.050304.