Response of Buried Pipeline to Non-Uniform Longitudinal and Transverse Ground Motions

Buried pipelines are susceptible to non-uniform excitations in different directions, which may lead to severe damage. This study investigates the pipeline performance under longitudinal and transverse non-uniform excitations via multi-point shaking table tests. The results demonstrated that the seismic response of pipeline was affected more by soil inconsistent motion under transverse non-uniform excitations, while it was affected more by the degree of pipeline-soil interaction in longitudinal direction. The pipeline maximum peak bending strains were larger than the maximum peak axial strains at higher loading intensity. These indicated that the pipeline response mechanisms are different under longitudinal and transverse non-uniform excitations.