Analysis of Buried Pipeline Behavior in Fine-Grained Liquefiable Soil

Buried pipelines and networks are considered part of a vital artery. A characteristic that distinguishes a vital artery from other structures is that it extends parallel to the ground and has a large dimension on one side and ratio to another side. This feature causes vital arteries in high-risk situations because of seismic movements, liquefaction, and various conditions of the soil. This paper presents studies on buried pipeline behavior in fine-grained liquefiable soil. For this purpose, a real site with cohesionless fine-grained sediments is considered, and two different methods, numerical analysis, and liquefaction susceptibility criteria, are employed to investigate the behavior of the buried pipeline in the fine-grained liquefiable soil of the case study site. A comparison of the results of the methods indicated that the predictions provided by the liquefaction susceptibility criteria to numerical modeling offer a greater probability of liquefaction in the assessed site. The results of the settlement analysis showed that the values of the differential settlement obtained from numerical analysis by the finite element method are less than the allowable value.