An introduction to the modeling of active fault zone width's effect on the qualitative deformation of lifelines and their routing (case study: buried gas pipelines in east of Iran).

Among the many factors causing damage to lifelines, there are active faults along the pipeline route that can cause fracture and breakdown of the pipeline if it is justified. Thus, during pipeline route study phase, detailed geological work on the route should be undertaken and fault paths identified. It is, therefore, essential to study the structures of the study area to select the appropriate path. Due to crossing of Iranshahr–Mirjaveh gas pipeline in the eastern part of Iran at the intersection with the southern terminals of the Nosrat-Abad fault system, careful study of the geology and structural interpretation of these faults in terms of damage to the pipeline is necessary. Therefore, in this study, fault displacements and damages considering fault width at intersection with lifelines (buried gas pipelines) are modeled and evaluated by special software programs. Therefore, in this paper, considering a specific area in eastern Iran and using available software to simulate the active fault and analyze their effects on pipelines and considering the impact of active fault zones on three issues selected (strike-slip, strike-slip–reverse and reverse faults) have been investigated to improve the design parameters routing of lifelines (buried gas pipelines) in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]