Seismic Design and Performance Evaluation of Fusion-Type Polyethylene Pipeline

It is known that buried polyethylene (PE) pipes exhibit good seismic performance owing to their flexibility and ductility. The use of PE pipes as buried pipelines is gradually increasing, but currently, there are no seismic design or seismic performance evaluation procedures for domestic PE pipes in Korea. In this study, a seismic design and performance evaluation procedure for a domestic fusion-type PE pipe was developed based on the response displacement method, which is relatively easy to apply. The procedure was based on a method of examining whether the sum of the axial strain induced by both normal and seismic loading was within the allowable strain of the PE pipe. While calculating the axial strain of the ground, a coefficient was introduced to account for the heterogeneity of the ground. A seismic review method for ground deformation, i.e., ground liquefaction, was also introduced. The proposed procedure will provide a useful technical basis for evaluating the seismic design and performance of buried PE pipes in future studies.