Modelling of Wind Turbine Fall-Induced Vibrations Near Buried Steel Transmission Pipelines: An Updated RAMCES Software Extension

At CRIGEN, the GDF SUEZ research center for gas and new energies, a project on risk management on gas infrastructures (MARTHO project) is aimed, among other goals, at protecting the pipelines against external aggressions such as vibrations. Over the past few years, extensive construction of wind turbines has taken place all around the world in areas where many steel pipelines are already buried. The possible fall of these heavy machines may induce damageable vibrations to the pipeline. The common threshold used by the industry, established by the American Gas Association, is stated at PPV ≤ 50 mm.s⁻¹. A more accurate and less conservative model of vibration propagation has been developed and validated by extensive field measurements coupled with a nonlinear 2D-finite element model for the soil. An experimental soil characterization through MASW tests coupled with vibration measurements was performed in a representative soil. As a result, safety distances between wind turbines and pipelines were considerably shortened compared to the previous model. The updated model is now part of the RAMCES software which has been developed for more than a decade at CRIGEN and is widely used in France by transmission operators.