Application of LRBF-DQ and CVBFEM Methods for Evaluating Saturated Sand Liquefaction around Buried Pipeline

Abstract

Liquefaction is a phenomenon that occurs in loose saturated granular soils during seismic loading. In this study, the control volume finite-element method (CVFEM) and local radial basis function-based differential quadrature (LRBF-DQ) method were used to evaluate the liquefaction of the saturated sand around the buried pipelines. Also, the effect of the presence of a trench with highly permeable coarse-grained soils was employed to reduce the liquefaction potential. The results showed that the LRBF-DQ method requires less time to solve the governing equations and, therefore, is a more suitable method for estimating the liquefaction around the pipelines. The difference in the solving time of the two approaches increases with increasing the earthquake duration and decreasing pipeline burial depth. The sensitivity analysis showed that the earthquake duration, burial depth, and radius of the pipeline are the most critical factors affecting the analysis time, respectively. Besides, the presence of a trench with higher permeability materials can significantly decline the liquefaction potential of the soil and reduce the uplift of the pipeline.