Pipe–soil interaction for segmented buried pipelines subjected to dip faults

Summary This paper describes an investigation of pipe–soil interaction equations suggested by currently used pipeline seismic design codes and the applicability of these equations to segmented pipelines. The results of computer‐aided analyses were compared to results obtained in full‐scale experiments on a segmented ductile iron pipeline 93 mm in diameter and 15 m in length. The pipeline was installed 600 mm below the ground surface in a sandy soil compacted to two different subgrade reaction values. The type of fault considered was a reverse fault with an intersection angle of 60° with the pipeline, and the fault movement was a total of 350 mm in three same steps in the fault trace direction. The findings of this study demonstrate the necessity of considering the nature of soil behavior in pipe–soil interaction equations and the effects of connection joints on the integrated response of pipelines to fault‐induced ground deformations. A new combination of equations constituting a direction‐wise selection from among the equations proposed by currently used guidelines is introduced as a new series to describe pipe–soil interaction for segmented pipelines and is verified using the results of full‐scale experiments. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.