Damage analysis of PE gas pipes under point loading
The elasticity and yield parameters of PE were determined through a uniaxial tensile experiment.A pipe-soil fi-nite element model under a point load was established to study the point-loading mechanical response of buried PE gas pipes,and the effects of point-loading dimension,pipe internal pressure,and pipe diameter were analyzed.Based on the DFDI(ductile failure damage indicator)model and combined with the finite element simulation results,quantitative dam-age calculations were carried out for PE pipes under a point load.The results indicated that the point load increased the pipe damage when compared to the damage results of the pipe without a point load.The pipe damage shows a great change with a variation of the internal pressure of the pipe.There is little effect on the PE pipe damage with a small change in the pipe diameter,and the damage values under each pipe diameter are relatively close to each other.