Seismic verification of long cylindrical underground structures considering Rayleigh wave effects

The 3-D flexible thin shell theory is employed for the strain analysis of near-surface long cylindrical underground structures such as buried pipelines and thin-walled tunnels, against seismic Rayleigh wave propagation. Analytical solutions are initially derived separately for the normal and shear components of Rayleigh waves and are consequently superimposed over time, taking into account the spatial variation of strains over the cross-section. Design strains are finally established by maximizing the analytical expressions against the unknown, random angles of wave incidence. Τhe proposed methodology is compared to the current state-of-practice, via application of the proposed relations to an example problem.

► Analytical verification of buried long structures due to seismic Rayleigh waves.
► Spatial and temporal superposition of strains.
► Single set of design strains, by considering the shear and compressional component.
► Critical for the design of structures where criteria based on axial strains apply.