Evaluation of the Effect of the Wall Dents Location on Steel Pipes Crossing Strike-Slip Faults

Analysis of buried pipelines under Permanent Ground Deformation (PGD) shows that the movement of earth faults near these lines causes damage to them. A review of past earthquake experience also shows that the defect of the pipe can be vulnerable to fault displacement. One of the most important mechanical defects of pipelines is wall dents. Because the location of this damage in the pipe wall affects the life of the pipes and due to the inevitable intersection of pipelines with faults and also reviewing the relevant technical literature indicates that dented pipelines at fault crossing sites have not been investigated. It is necessary to investigate and analyze dented pipelines at the intersection with faults and determine the most critical state of this damage in the pipe at the crossing of faults. Accordingly, during the present study, four numerical models were created in ABAQUS and the effect of the dent position in the pipe wall in each hour of pipe cross section (3, 6, 9 and 12 o'clock) was examined in the fault movement. Finally, the dent at the 3 o'clock position of the cross section of the pipe was selected as the most critical situation in the crossing strike-slip fault.