Stress Analysis of Suspended Gas Pipeline Segment
Publication: Journal of Pipeline Systems Engineering and Practice
Volume 8, Issue 3
Abstract
Long-distance natural gas pipelines often pass through unfavorable geological areas. Pipelines are prone to suspension due to geological disasters like earthquakes. The stress of the suspended segment is likely to exceed allowable values, causing the pipeline to rupture. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the stress on a suspended gas pipeline and determine the ultimate length of the suspended segment. Constraint and boundary conditions can be determined for the mechanical model of the suspended pipeline and pipeline beam. A numerical simulation of a suspended pipeline was conducted. The result was compared with existing data in order to verify the reliability of the simulation. The analysis of the factors that influence the suspended pipeline, including internal pressure, soil overburden compaction multiplier (OCM), buried depth, and diameter-thickness ratio, indicates that (1) it is imperative to check peak stress during inspection of the suspended gas pipeline; (2) because of the pipeline’s flexibility, a slight drop in stress is observed from the middle point of the suspended segment toward the junction of the covered segment and the suspended segment; (3) with increases in pipeline pressure or buried depth, maximum peak stress increases for pipelines with the same suspended segment length; (4) when the length of the suspended segment increases, changes in OCM-Stress show different behaviors; and (5) with increases in the length of the suspended segment, the stress tends to increase as the diameter-thickness ratio becomes more and more pronounced.
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Acknowledgments
This research is supported by Sichuan Provincial Key Disciplinary Development Project Fund (SZD0416). The authors also appreciate the extremely helpful and substantive comments from reviewers.
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Published In
Journal of Pipeline Systems Engineering and Practice
Volume 8 • Issue 3 • August 2017
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 1, 2015
Accepted: Oct 27, 2016
Published online: Feb 7, 2017
Discussion open until: Jul 7, 2017
Published in print: Aug 1, 2017
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