A Study of the Impact of Dynamic Ground Actions on Momentary Values of Friction Forces at the Gas Pipeline-Backfill Interface

Abstract

Buried pipelines are subjected to the action of static forces and moments caused by friction forces at the pipeline-ground contact. At the same time, pipelines are subjected to dynamic actions generated by paraseismic pulses, in particular, in areas of mining and heavy traffic. The paper presents and experimentally verifies a test method of tribological pipeline-soil interaction in conditions of artificially induced soil static and dynamic actions. The applied test methodology allows the determination of friction forces at the tested pipeline section. The friction forces changes over time on the pipeline and soil surface for the varying pipeline tensioning forces were continuously recorded during the tests. Based on the Short-Time Fourier Transform (STFT) of signals, the paper presents the impact of dynamic actions on momentary values of measured friction forces. Relationships are given that allow the determination of friction forces between the pipeline and the soil, including their limit values resulting in the loss of the mutual adhesion of the pipeline and the soil.