Analysis of the Interaction Between Buried Pipelines and Slope Instability Phenomena

Abstract

Economic and social integration across Europe requires secure lifelines, such as roads, railways and pipelines. Existing and planned lifelines may come across a large number of different natural and anthropic hazards. For instance, past catastrophic events have dramatically shown that steel pipelines may be highly vulnerable to permanent ground deformation due to earthquakes and landslides. Therefore, their behaviour when exposed to processes that can generate large displacement and strain (co-seismic deformation and faulting, liquefaction, earth and rock slides and flows, rock falls) needs to be assessed. In fact, and in particular if toxic and/or flammable materials are transported, structural damage with eventual leakage might result in a severe risks for both human life and the environment, with associated relevant economic costs. To such purpose, in this work, a methodology for the assessment, prevention and efficient management of geological risks, mainly landslides, in steel buried pipelines will be presented. The proposed procedure aims at reducing the risk of environmental disasters and the subsequent huge financial and environmental losses.