Optimal Cable Laying Across an Earthquake Fault Line Considering Elliptical Failures

Whether it be a road, railway track, pipeline, or fiber-optic cable, achieving a low probability of “cable” damage is important for the proper operation of modern infrastructure. This paper considers the fundamental problem of how to connect two points with a cable that crosses an earthquake fault line. We first develop a model, under certain general assumptions, for the cable break probability. Then, we formulate a multiobjective optimization problem, with cable cost and probability of cable break being the two objectives. For two important and meaningful sets of cable shape alternatives, the Pareto front is determined for these two objectives. All the analytical results are verified by simulations.