Response of Buried Pipelines to Underground Blast Loading

  • Danesh Nourzadeh, University of Tehran, Iran
  • Shiro Takada, University of Tehran, Japan
  • Prof Khosrow Bargi, University of Tehran, Iran

This paper deals with the transversal vibration characteristics of continuous buried pipelines subjected to underground explosion. The pipeline considering soil-structure interaction is modeled as an infinite beam on elastic foundation and assumed to remain elastic during the explosion because the rupture is more likely to happen at the joints before the yield limit of the pipe body. The blast load is considered as a vertical point load at some point of the infinite pipeline which its intensity varies exponentially with time. Although a point load model is used, the length of the pipeline which is affected by the blast pressure is taken into account by coefficients multiplied to the pressure in the blast load formulation. A closed form solution is presented for the quasi static problem and the displacements and stresses along the pipeline are derived as functions of time. A case study on steel, PVC and cast iron pipe with different diameters and surrounding soil conditions and burial depths, affected by a predefined explosive is also carried out and effect of each parameter is discussed separately. The results shows that steel pipes in loose dry soils with deeper burial depths are the most resistant among other examples against underground explosions.