Limit‐States Design of Prestressed Concrete Pipe. I: Criteria

Abstract

A new design procedure is presented for prestressed concrete cylinder pipe subjected to internal pressure, external loads, and pipe and fluid weights based on certain limit‐states design criteria. The proposed design criteria consist of: (1) Serviceability limits for crack control in the core and the coating of the pipe; (2) elastic limits to maintain repeatability; and (3) strength limits. Design criteria for calculating combined loads and pressures corresponding to these limit states are described with the reasoning that led to their recommendation. The results of a series of carefully conducted combined‐load tests on three embedded‐ and three lined‐cylinder pipes are presented and compared to the combined loads calculated based on the proposed limit‐states design criteria. The test results show the accuracy of the proposed criteria and procedures for predicting the combined loads at first visible core and coating cracks. The actual design procedures that are used with these limit state criteria are presented in a companion paper.