Numerical Investigations on Stability Analysis of Buried Pipelines with Varying Cross-Sectional Shapes to Blast Loading

The fabrication of buried pipelines has been a significant part of human history because of its social and strategic importance. This paper presents a numerical study of the response of buried pipelines in soil to surface blast loading for varying cross-sectional shapes of pipelines. A 3D finite element model (FEM) is developed to simulate the dynamic response of the buried pipeline for blast loading to replicate the actual site conditions. The Coupled-Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) technique is adopted for the numerical modeling of this problem. Finally, a relative comparison between the blast responses of varying cross-sectional shapes is performed, and a corresponding discussion is made. The results showed that the varying cross-sectional shape significantly affected the pipeline's dynamic response. The findings of this study provide valuable insight into the response of buried pipelines of different cross-sectional forms beneath soil for surface blast loading.