Experimental and numerical investigations on damage assessment of high-density polyethylene pipe subjected to blast loads

Abstract Buried high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipelines have been extremely vulnerable to terrorist attacks and third-party damage in recent years, so it is important to study the vibration response and safety criterion of buried HDPE pipelines under the action of surface blast loads. In this paper, based on the full-scale field tests, the damage characteristics of HDPE pipes under the action of surface blast loads are studied. Next, a 3D numerical calculation model was established to analyze the response characteristics of the buried pipes subjected to surface blast loads and its reliability was verified using the field monitoring data. Then, the safety of the pipes under different blast load conditions was studied in combination with numerical simulation software, and different damage models of the pipe were established based on damage theory. The results show that the peak particle velocity (PPV) of both the pipe and the surface increases as the distance from the explosive decreases, and the vibration velocity of all measurement points is dominated by the vertical direction (Y). Meanwhile, as the surface explosive is triggered, the pipe is prone to overall bending deformation in the axial direction, resulting in the destruction of the pipe. Finally, based on the comprehensive numerical calculations, numerical simulation results were obtained for different damage levels of the pipes under surface blast loading. What’s more, the damage prediction model of the pipes is also proposed, and the critical curves corresponding to different damage levels are derived.