Centrifuge test of large-diameter segmented ductile iron pipes crossing strike-slip faults

Seismic ground faults are severe hazards for buried pipes. To explore and model the failure mechanisms of segmented pipes crossing faults, a centrifuge test of a socket-type ductile iron pipe crossing a strike-slip fault is conducted. In the test, a segmented ductile iron pipe with five segments is buried in a soil box. Then, at a centrifugal gravity level of 30.7 g, 60 mm ground displacements are applied through translation of half of the test soil box. Thus, a 2646.2 mm-diameter pipe with a length of 27.4 m subjected to a 1.84 m-long strike-slip fault is simulated. The responses of the joint deformation and the pipe strain are obtained. Results show that the joint deformation is the main response of the pipes subjected to strike-slip faults, the joint near the fault trace is vulnerable, the pipe strain is relatively small, and the peak pipe strain occurs at a certain distance from the fault. Lastly, a theoretical method is presented to obtain the joint deformation of the pipes crossing a strike-slip fault, and a good agreement between the test and theoretical results is observed. The test can be a benchmark for theoretical and numerical models. Meanwhile, the proposed theoretical method has clear physical mechanisms and can obtain the pipe joint deformation effectively.