Study Probes Pipelines With Elbows Subjected To Permanent Ground Deformation

摘要

Experiments at Cornell University ? involving the largest full-scale replication of ground deformation effects on pipelines ever simulated in the laboratory - have successfully investigated the effects of permanent ground deformation on buried steel pipelines with elbows and validated and calibrated a hybrid finite element (FE) model that combines beam elements for straight pipe, shell elements for the elbow, and spring-slider elements for soil-pipeline interaction. The analytical model is able to simulate the experimental response in a reliable way for dry sand, and for partially saturated sand with an adequate correction factor. The ultimate goal of this work is for complex soil-pipeline interactions to be simulated numerically with the precision and reliability necessary for planning and design.