Dynamic response of buried pipeline subject to impact loads using piezoceramic transducers

Long-distance pipelines play an important role in oil and gas transportation. It is of great significance to study the dynamic responses of pipelines under impact loads. In this paper, based on the theories of unit impulse function and Fourier series, a Eular-Bernoulli foundation beam model is established to obtain the responses of the pipelines under impact loads. Meanwhile, embedded and surface-bonded piezoceramic transducers are used to monitor the impact force and the acceleration of the pipelines under impact loads respectively. Based on the signal received by piezoceramic transducers, the impact force is obtained and the effect of wall thickness, diameter, buried depth, impact energy and other parameters on the acceleration of pipelines are analyzed. Nonlinear finite element simulation of the impact process was carried out and the results are basically consistent with experimental and theoretical. The experimental results show that the maximum acceleration increased with an increase in the impact energy. The acceleration of large diameter and thin wall pipelines are larger at the same impact energy. The deeper the pipelines buried, the smaller the acceleration is. The effectiveness of the piezoceramic transducers are verified by the test results in monitoring dynamic responses of the buried pipelines, which provide reference for seismic design and safety evaluation of pipeline engineering.