Buried high-density polyethylene pipelines subjected to normal and strike-slip faulting — a centrifuge investigation

Permanent ground deformation is arguably the most severe hazard for continuous buried pipelines. This paper presents results from two pairs of centrifuge tests designed to investigate the differences in behavior of buried high-density polyethylene pipelines subjected to normal and strike-slip faulting. The tests results show that, as expected, the pipeline behavior is asymmetric under normal faulting and symmetric under strike-slip faulting. In the case of strike-slip faulting, the soil–pipe interaction pressure distribution is symmetric with respect to the fault. However, in the case of normal faulting, there is a pressure concentration close to the fault trace on the up-thrown side, with much lower soil–pipe interaction pressures at other locations on the pipe. The soil–pipe interaction force versus deformation relationship (i.e., the p–y relationship) was obtained based on the experimental data. The p–y relationships for both the strike-slip and normal faulting cases were also compared with the relationships defined within the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) guidelines. It was found that, for the case of strike-slip faulting, the experimental p–y relationship is generally consistent with the ASCE guidelines. In contrast, the experimental p–y relationship is much softer than that defined by the ASCE guidelines for the normal faulting scenario.