P.G. Fazzini

Failures and integrity of pipelines subjected to soil movements

Buried pipelines interact with the soil that is founding them. Pipelines are subjected to additional loads transmitted by the movement of the ground. Geotechnical remedial works to control soil (fast) slides or (slow) creeping are often costly, so the proper placement of sensors and monitoring of deformations is an important variable to decide an intervention for stress relief. To this purpose, the key tools are nonlinear soil-pipe computer simulation, geotechnical surveys, and strain monitoring, an essential tool for keeping the integrity of pipelines buried in potentially unstable soils. Vibrating wire strain gages are frequently used to assess the axial and bending loads transmitted to the pipe. Limit values are set as alarm levels to indicate when to carry out remedial works and/or stress relief.