A parametric study on the effects of surface explosions on buried high pressure gas pipelines

Article history: Received 6 June, 2017 Accepted 11 September 2017 Available online 11 September 2017 Underground gas pipelines are one of the vital parts of each country which surface blasts can break down such pipelines, making destructive explosions and threatening the safety of neighborhood structures and people. In this paper, to enhance the safety of these lines, response of a buried 56-inch diameter high pressure natural gas pipeline to a surface blast was numerically investigated. Besides, the effects of: i) explosive mass, ii) pipeline thickness, iii) burial depth and iv) concrete protective layer on pipeline deformation were parametrically studied. To simulate the problem according to actual explosion events, geometries were modeled in real scales, pipeline properties were predicted with Johnson-Cook strength and failure model and soil strength was determined by Drucker-Prager model. Also, explosive charge and natural gas were modeled with JWL (Jones-Wilkins-Lee) and ideal gas equation of states. For validation of the numerical method, three bench mark experiments were reproduced. Comparison of the numerical results and the experimental data confirmed the accuracy of the numerical method. Results of parametric studies indicated that by increasing the burial depth from 1.4 to 2.2 m, deformation of the pipeline was reduced about 71%. By analyzing the deformation plots, it was found that in a constant explosive mass, burial depth has a greater effect than pipeline thickness on pipeline deformation reduction. It was also shown that using a concrete protective layer may act reversely and increase pipeline destruction. In other words, to enhance the safety of pipelines, a certain thickness of concrete must be used. © 2017 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.