Hazard Evaluation Method Study on Pipeline of Underground Crossing Landslide Area

With the starting of the West-East Gas Pipeline Project recently, the hazard evaluation of underground crossings of landslide areas has become of increasing interest within China as well as overseas. Due to landslide failure deformation, the pipeline could fail resulting in a great loss. Therefore, the arrangement plan of pipeline underground crossing landslide area is one of the key problems. A typical landslide in Western China area was taken as an example, from which the interaction model of landslide and pipeline was established. On the basis of the geotechnical finite difference software FLAC 3D , by using the mechanical analysis and numerical modeling, several schemes with different positions and different buried depths of pipeline were presented in order to carry out a comparative analysis and study. The results show that the pipeline in the front part of the landslide bears the smallest pressure and the maximum stress of pipeline increases with the increase of the buried depth of the pipeline. Therefore, the pipeline with shallow buried depth in the front part of the landslide is best route choice for the pipeline across the landslide, where the pipeline bears the smallest pushing force by the landslide. As a result, the method of choosing optimal position for the pipeline can reduce the geological hazard risk to the maximum extent. This study can provided a scientific basis for the pipeline route selection scheme in underground crossing landslide area of Western China.