A full-scale surface explosion test with buried pipeline was designed and implemented for the common shallow buried reinforced concrete pipeline with bell and spigot joints in urban areas, in order to study the safety of buried pipelines under the effect of surface explosion. The dynamic response characteristics and the crack expansion mechanism of reinforced concrete pipeline with bell and spigot joints under the action of surface explosion were analyzed based on concrete smeared crack model by combining fully coupled numerical simulation means and separated reinforced concrete modeling method. Results show that under the effect of surface explosion, the pipeline cracking in the form of oblique cracking and circumferential cracking. And the oblique cracks are all generated at the bell and spigot joints of the pipe. When the detonation source is located above the bell and spigot joints of pipeline and the middle of the pipe body, obvious oblique cracks appeared in the bell and spigot joints which closest to the detonation source. Bell and spigot joints of the pipeline is the weakest part to resistant blasting in the pipeline system.