Advanced Soil Pipe Interaction Research

Professor Dharma Wijewickreme

Department of Civil Engineering

University of British Columbia

Presented by: Jeremy Groves

Presentation Agenda

•Discuss the need to study soil-pipeline interaction,

•Provide an overview of the ASPIReTM program and

testing facility at UBC,

•Look at our current research on the topic of field

monitoring of buried polyethylene natural gas

pipelines subjected to ground movement.

What are pipelines?

•Linear structures spanning over long distances,

•Variability in soils and groundwater,

•Variability of exposure to hazards,

•Crossing of environmentally sensitive zones,

•Cost effectiveness (e.g. optimize pipe size, material type),

•Specific chemical properties of transported liquids/gas.

EVER INCREASING DEMAND TO DESIGN AND CONSTRUCT

PIPELINES WITH REDUCED RISK OF FAILURE!

Problem for pipeline safety & integrity

•Disruption due to landslides, earthquake-induced liquefaction,

stress/stretch corrosion cracking and general loss of integrity

can have significant impact on performance,

•Some quantified risk:•The average costs from significant pipeline damage due to

geotechnical incidents over the past 10 years >$400M/year (twice

that of damage from other hazards). -US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration

•BC’s approx. 40,000 km of pipelines.

Geotechnical hazards to buried pipelines

Liquefaction-induced ground

movementsSlow moving landslides

Rapid landslidesEarth fault movements

Specific challenges faced by geotechnical engineers

•Impact of soil forces on buried pipelines (landslides,

earthquake-induced ground movements),•Permanent relative ground deformations are the key concern in relation to

the performance of buried pipelines.

•Need to minimize soil loads on buried pipelines,•Isolate from hazards,

•Tolerate soil loads from the hazards,

•Eliminate the hazard.

•The key to all of this is to understand the soil-pipeline

interaction.

•Performance and integrity of pipe

under relative movements between

pipe and ground (e.g., landslides,

earthquakes, pipe thermal

movements),

•Predict contact pressure around

the pipe, loads/strains on the pipe.

Wijewickreme et al. (2009)

Importance of soil-pipeline interaction

General problem

One of the key purposes of our research is to help develop guidelines

and criteria to determine the amount of ground displacement

associated with the safe operational limits of buried pipelines.

Dual actuator-system for lateral pullout

Physical Model Testing at UBC ASPIReTM

Field monitoring of buried polyethylene natural gas pipelines

subjected to ground movement

•12 year long collaboration with Fortis BC pipeline integrity engineers,

•Previously two M.A.Sc. and one Ph.D. have studied on this topic,

•Developed a new analytical model to account for the soil-pipe

interaction mechanisms in buried MDPE pipes,

•Used to estimate relative ground surface movements needed for

pipe failure.

•Purpose of the current work is to provide a reliable database of

ground movement and associated pipe strain data to further validate

the new closed form solution.

Field monitoring of buried polyethylene natural gas pipelines

subjected to ground movement

Field monitoring of buried polyethylene natural gas pipelines

subjected to ground movement

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Field monitoring of buried polyethylene natural gas pipelines

subjected to ground movement

Field monitoring of buried polyethylene natural gas pipelines

subjected to ground movement

Field monitoring of buried polyethylene natural gas pipelines

subjected to ground movement

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Advanced Soil Pipe Interaction Research

The End