Theoretical analysis of the deformation for steel gas pipes taking into account shear effects under surface explosion loads

Ground blast loads are of great importance to the safe operation of steel and gas pipelines, and the results obtained from traditional theoretical formulas for pipeline safety prediction are in error with the actual measured data. In this paper, full-size field tests and corresponding numerical simulations are carried out using Timoshenko beam theory and explosion stress wave theory, which consider shear effects. At the same time, combined with the theory of foundation stiffness and pipeline stiffness flexibility ratio, a modified theoretical model is obtained in line with the actual conditions of the site, which can accurately calculate the deformation and displacement of pipeline underground explosion load, and greatly reduce the error of theoretical prediction results. The innovation of the research results in this paper is that the theoretical stress in the Timoshenko beam can be replaced by the circumferential strain. On the other hand, the modified theoretical solution can obtain the critical weight of explosives to prevent pipeline damage at different buried depths. It provides a theoretical basis for the protection of pipelines’ underground blast loads and provides research ideas for the safe protection and design of pipelines.