Dynamic Responses of Buried Pipelines Under Impact Loading Caused by Landslide

Cases of pipeline damage caused by landslide are common in coastal or mountainous regions, where the design of buried pipelines should be improved in order to reduce the risk of damage or failure. Dynamic responses of large diameter thin wall steel pipes under impact loading were analyzed using a nonlinear contact model of pipe-soil coupling in this paper. Several influence factors were studied, such as the impact velocity of rockfall, buried depth of pipeline, ratio of diameter to thickness and style of soil. The results show that an ellipsoid induces much more impact force than a sphere which has the same volume, and the larger one in volume have greater impact force for two spheres. Dangerous compressive areas of pipeline occupy 1/6 of the whole area, so the pipelines subject to landslide occur local failure. Based on results, some useful suggestions for the design of pipelines in landslide region are given