Ring-Reinforced Pipelines: That Moment of Mystery

Abstract

Soil support is routinely incorporated into the design of a buried flexible pipeline, whether straight walled or corrugated. However, there does not appear to be any published design guidelines for a buried ring-reinforced pipeline. Research is needed to clarify how to evaluate the effective value of the transverse moment of inertia. Furthermore, the appropriate value of the moment to be used in the deflection equation is not necessarily the same as the value to be used in the buckling equation. For buckling, until more research is conducted, the writer recommends that the soil support for a ring-reinforced pipeline be ignored and that the soil be considered to be a dense fluid.