Modeling the impact of earthquake-induced sensitive clay landslide on an exposed pipeline using a large deformation Finite Element Method

The sudden and mostly unpredictable landslides in sensitive clay are generally retrogressive in nature and eventually turn into a flow of failed soil mass that exerts force on the pipeline placed across the route of the flow (drag). The drag force is one of key design parameters for selection of the pipeline route. Depending upon the velocity of the debris, the drag force on the pipelines might vary with time. The large deformation finite element modeling techniques in an Eulerian framework can simulate the large deformation slope failures of sensitive clays. In the present study, the drag force on a pipeline due to the impact of the failed soil resulted from an earthquake-induced landslide is simulated. A parametric study is conducted for varying pipe size, pipe location, and soil properties.