Experimental Investigation of Dynamic Deformation in Main Gas Pipelines

Main gas pipelines are critical engineering structures, and, therefore, their safe operation is an urgent scientific and technical problem. This paper describes a series of experimental studies conducted in one section of an actual main gas pipeline. The goal is to analyze oscillatory wave processes taking place in a gas pipeline in response to various external effects, such as impact loads applied to the ground in the vicinity of the pipeline, operation of the stop valves (valve switching from the full open to full closed position, or vice versa), and gas release through the holes of different diameters simulating the appearance of a fistula in a pipeline wall. Based on the obtained experimental results, the specific features of the propagation of oscillatory processes are established, and the conditions of a possibility of recording these processes by fiber-optic accelerometers are determined.