Soil Stress Distribution around Buried Pipes

Abstract

An extensive experimental study of flexible and semi‐rigid pipes subjected to soil and superimposed loads was carried out in a large laboratory soil box. Normal and tangential soil stresses were measured by plane‐stress transducers at the pipe‐soil interface in a wide trench laying conditions. The results were used to calculate vertical and horizontal soil loads on the pipe. It is shown that both normal and tangential soil stresses are essential for pipe load evaluation. Horizontal to vertical soil load ratios as well as vertical load concentration coefficients are presented for a wide range of pipe‐soil stiffness ratios.