Analysis of Damage to Steel Gas Pipelines Caused by Ground Shaking Effects during the Chi-Chi, Taiwan, Earthquake

This paper presents an investigation on damage to natural gas pipelines in Taichung City from the Chi-Chi Taiwan earthquake. This paper addresses damage due to ground shaking effects and does not address damage due to large ground deformations. Four parameters, that is, peak ground acceleration, peak ground velocity, Arias intensity, and spectral intensity, are used to represent ground shaking. Based on pipe repair data and recorded strong motion data, regression analyses of pipe repair rates were carried out to develop seismic vulnerability functions. From the regression analysis results, Arias intensity is considered as the best parameter for the derivation of seismic vulnerability function. The seismic vulnerability functions derived in this study are for steel gas pipelines with mechanical joints and the pipelines are located in firm soils and in the footwall area subject to ground shaking from an earthquake caused by a thrust fault.