Local buckling behavior of buried pipeline under seismic oblique-reverse fault displacement

Seismic fault displacement is the main factor leading to the local buckling failure of the buried pipeline, especially crossing the oblique-reverse fault. The 3-D displacement of the oblique-reverse fault makes the local buckling behavior of the buried pipeline more complex. It may be inaccurate to evaluate the local buckling location and degree using the pipe local buckling results under the single fault displacement, affecting the monitoring and safety assessment of the pipeline. In this paper, to determine the pipe local buckling behavior (potential local buckling locations, developing process) under the oblique-reverse fault displacement, a shell and solid element nonlinear contact coupling model of the pipeline crossing oblique-reverse fault is established using ABAQUS. The results reveal two potential local buckling areas and three stages of the local buckling developing process under the oblique-reverse fault displacement. Subsequently, the potential local buckling locations and three stages in the local buckling under different operating conditions is obtained. It proves that using the results of pipe local buckling under single fault to evaluate the pipeline local buckling under composed fault is not safe enough. Consequently, local buckling behavior of the pipeline crossing oblique-reverse fault provides a reference for the preliminary pipe design, detection, and evaluation.