A Simple Soil-Structure Interaction Model for Indirect Damage Assessment of Segmented Concrete Pipelines during PGD

This paper describes a simple soil-structure interaction model of a buried segmented concrete pipeline that can be used for indirect health monitoring during Permanent Ground Deformation (PGD). Buried pipelines are difficult to inspect visually, and thus accurate health monitoring systems can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of repair efforts immediately following an earthquake. A Winkler pipeline model is developed for indirect health monitoring that incorporates the two primary modes of failure observed in pipeline experiments, namely telescoping and rotation at the joints. Very approximate estimates of the model parameters are made, and the model results are compared to experimental results. In general the model captures both the magnitude and patterns of joint deformation. However, the model yields axial forces that are two orders of magnitude higher than the measured values. This suggests that the first order approximation of the joint as an elastic beam is inaccurate. Structural testing of the joints both in axial compression and rotation will provide more accurate refinement of the joint model.