Meta-Material Layout for the Protection of Buried Steel Pipes against Surface Explosion

24 May 2023

The preliminary studies and results around the concept of meta-materials

This paper reports on preliminary yet consistent studies and results around the concept of meta materials applied to the protection of buried gas transmission pipelines.

The design philosophy of the proposed meta-material layout in attenuating and dissipating the energy induced by a surface explosion is described in general terms, and then it is examined for a set of realistic and varying in magnitude case scenarios. The formulation and the function of the meta-materials' dissipation mechanism - the so called band gaps compose the core of the analysis. Band-gaps are considered mitigation zones for the incident waves of certain frequencies and regarding their calculation, the 1D periodic structures' theory is exploited in the analytical level and the results are verified numerically.

The novel layout is tested towards nine case scenarios of surface explosions via finite element analyses in ABAQUS. Extremely satisfying results are demonstrated the regarding displacements' reduction of the buried steel pipe, and the subsequent mitigation of the consequences due to the blast hazard. The outer goal of the present study is to spotlight the implementation of meta-material concepts for the efficient blast protection of underground structures, addressing a major hazard for this type of structure and a gap in the current literature.

Read our paper now