Energy-informed elasticity comprehensive evaluation for gas transportation systems: A dynamic framework against anomalous events

• First definition of nonlinear elasticity in natural gas transportation systems. • Three-stage dynamic analysis of elasticity: absorption-response-recovery. • Comprehensive evaluation framework using six performance dimensions. • Validation through operational anomalies in real pipeline networks. Natural gas pipelines constitute critical infrastructure with significant safety implications. System elasticity represents the ability of the energy system to maintain core operational efficiency and recover quickly from abnormal events. The elasticity in these systems stems primarily from gas compressibility and operational dynamics. Proper management of such elasticity is essential to prevent vulnerabilities. This study establishes a dynamic gas transportation model and defines system elasticity for the first time. We analyze nonlinear responses across absorption, response, and recovery stages, evaluating resilience through six performance dimensions: cost efficiency, energy reserves, safety margins, load satisfaction, and structural integrity. The framework is validated on a gas network under compressor and pipeline shutdown scenarios. Quantitative results demonstrate that the comprehensive elasticity index is highly sensitive to disturbance locations as it ranges from 0.189 to 0.757 against a normal baseline of 0.800. Unlike conventional static resilience indicators that solely measure functional loss, the proposed method explicitly quantifies the dynamic energy throughput across absorption, response, and recovery stages. This approach provides a more precise and dynamic basis for identifying system vulnerabilities and maximizing transportation capacity.