Multi-Directional Force-Displacement Response of Underground Pipe in Sand

A methodology is presented to evaluate multi-directional force-displacement relationships for soil-pipeline interaction analysis and design. Large-scale tests of soil reaction to pipe lateral and uplift movement in dry and partially saturated sand are used to validate plane strain, finite element (FE) soil and pipe continuum models. The FE models are then used to characterize force vs displacement performance for lateral, vertical upward, vertical downward, and oblique orientations of pipeline movement in soil. Using the force vs displacement relationships, the analytical results for pipeline response to strike-slip fault rupture are shown to compare favorably with the results of large-scale tests in which strike-slip fault movement was imposed on 250-mm and 400-mm-diameter high density polyethylene pipelines in partially saturated sand. Analytical results normalized with respect to maximum lateral force are provided on 360ď ° plots to predict maximum pipe loads for any movement direction. The resulting methodology and dimensionless plots are applicable for underground pipelines and conduits at any depth, subject to relative soil movement in any direction in dry/saturated and partially saturated medium to very dense sands.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author