Experimental Performance Evaluation of Seismic-Resilient PVCO Pipeline: Fid-Bau Portal

Experimental Performance Evaluation of Seismic-Resilient PVCO Pipeline

Wham, B. P. / Berger, B. A. / O’Rourke, T. D.

Conventional buried pipelines used in water and wastewater systems are especially vulnerable to permanent ground deformation imposed by natural hazards such as earthquake-induced fault rupture and lateral spreading, flooding-induced scour, landsliding, and various other sources of natural and construction-induced subsidence and settlement. Efforts to develop innovative solutions to address resiliency to natural hazards has resulted in a paradigm shift in pipeline design and evaluation, requiring physical testing under realistic conditions to quantify expected performance. This paper reports on a series of full-scale experiments characterizing the mechanical response and associated hazard-resilience of an oriented polyvinyl chloride (PVCO) pipeline under large geometric deformation. Component testing of restrained joints in axial tension and compression, deflection under four-point bending, and a full-scale fault rupture simulation were performed to quantify system capacity under extreme loading conditions. The test results show that the performance of the segmented PVCO pipeline with restrained joints is strongly influenced by the force-displacement capacity of the joints as well as the pipeline’s ability to deflect under sustained lateral loading. Pipeline performance is statistically quantified in terms of its capacity to accommodate horizontal ground strain measured during the Canterbury earthquake sequence in New Zealand and compared with performance levels outlined in a developing ASCE manual of practice for seismic pipeline design.