On the Dynamic Behavior of Town Gas Pipelines

Pipelines have been acknowledged as the most reliable, economic and efficient means for the transportation of gas and other commercial fluids such as oil and water. The designation of pipeline system as “lifelines” signifies that their operation is essential in maintaining the public safety and well being. A pipeline transmission system is a linear system which traverses a large geographical area, and soil conditions thus, is susceptible to a wide variety of hazards. This paper is concerned with the dynamic behavior of buried town gas pipelines. A computer model with a finite number of nodes is created to simulate the behavior of the real gas pipeline. The dynamic susceptibility method is applied for twenty mode shapes of this model, which utilizes the stress per velocity method and is an incisive analytical tool for screening the vibration modes of the system. It can be readily identified, which modes, if excited, could potentially cause large dynamic stresses. This paper discusses also two of the piping dynamic analyses, namely the effect of the response spectrum of an earthquake and the time history analysis of a truck crosses the pipeline.