Numerical simulation of buried steel pipelines subjected to ground surface blast loading

Steel gas pipelines are important component in energy sector. Due to its easy accessibility and importance, shallow-buried pipelines are becoming targets of intentional attack. Therefore, it is urgent to investigate the failure mechanism of buried pipelines subjected to ground surface blast loadings and carry out quantitative damage assessment of pipelines. The present study performs numerical simulation on the resistance of buried pipelines subjected to ground surface explosion. The simulated ground shock propagation in the soil medium was validated with technical manual TM5-855-1 as well as experimental data. The effects of charge weight, stand-off distance, explosive position offset, pipe diameter, pipe wall thickness, buried depth, and steel grade as well as different soil types were investigated. It was found that for the grade X70 pipe with the same buried depth 760 mm, the cross-sectional flattening ratio under charge weight 227 kg (typical sedan bomb) was nearly 544 times greater than the case in 2.3 kg charge weight (typical pipe bomb). The flattening ratio decreased 99.9% because of the buried depth increased from 300 mm to 1800 mm. The decrease in pipe diameter from 860 mm to 350 mm caused 89.6% reduction in flattening ratio. The increase in wall thickness from 4.80 mm to 12.7 mm caused 99.7% decline in flattening ratio. Similarly, it showed the flattening ratio decreased 29.3% when the steel grade increased from X42 (yield strength 290 MPa) to X80 (yield strength 580 MPa). The blast resistance was the worst when the pipeline was buried in clay soil, in which the flattening ratio was 74.8% and 40.3% greater as compared with sandy loam and soil medium. An analytical formula was derived to predict the flattening ratio of pipelines against surface explosion.