Comparison between the seismic performance of buried pipes and pipes in a utility tunnel

Abstract

A utility tunnel system consists of pipes and ancillary facilities. In this paper, a finite element model of a concrete utility tunnel with pipes inside is established. Several tunnel segments were built to simulate a real utility tunnel, while the pipe was fixed by springs on the brackets in the utility tunnel. Using the discrete soil spring element to simulate the soil-structure interaction, actual earthquake records were adopted as excitation to analyze the seismic responses of pipes in a utility tunnel. Moreover, the influences of different parameters, including soil type, earthquake records, and field apparent wave velocity on the seismic responses of the utility tunnel and the pipes inside were studied. Finally, the seismic responses of buried pipes were analyzed and compared with those of pipes in a utility tunnel to evaluate the seismic performance of pipes for two working conditions.