Soil-Structure Interaction of Very Flexible Pipes: Centrifuge and Numerical Investigations

Abstract

The unprecedented increasing cost of steel coupled with the superior mechanical and anticorrosion properties of fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) creates a huge opportunity for FRP pipes to take the market share of steel and be the pipe of choice for geotechnical engineers for a variety of applications ranging from potable-water systems to feed lines and penstock for hydroelectric power plants. Recently, very flexible large-diameter FRP pipes have been installed in eastern Canada and the United States to replace old wood-stave pipes to convey water to drive the turbines of small hydroelectric plants. The behavior of buried very flexible pipes is one of the complex soil-structure interaction (SSI) problems in geotechnical engineering and has not been studied thoroughly until now. The flexibility classification of pipes is determined based on their effective stiffness. Accordingly, flexible pipes will have an effective flexibility of