Influence of Depth-of-Cover on Pipe-Soil Interaction

by Frank Somogyi, Northwestern Univ, Evanston, IL, USA,
Robert W. Hutson, Northwestern Univ, Evanston, IL, USA,
Michael C. Billone, Northwestern Univ, Evanston, IL, USA,
H. A. Todres, Northwestern Univ, Evanston, IL, USA,



Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: Advances in Underground Pipeline Engineering

Abstract:

A major research effort was undertaken to study the structural behavior of a natural gas pipeline under several critical service conditions. The program included a field test site near Racine, Wisconsin, involving a 16 inch natural gas main which had been in service for a period of roughly 30 years. The observed pipe stresses are compared to those predicted using various procedures, including Iowa-type, elasticity, and finite element (CANDE) analyses. While the comparison is favorable for the deep burial situation, the results for the shallow burial are qualitatively inconsistent for the geostatic case and quantitatively inconsistent for the additional stresses induced by surface loadings. The results demonstrate that the behavior of a pipe can be strongly influenced by variations in lateral soil stresses, which seem to be most pronounced at small depths.

Subject Headings: Soil-pipe interaction | Structural behavior | Soil stress | Gas pipelines | Stress analysis | Soil-structure interaction | Soil properties | Wisconsin | United States

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