Influence of buried pipes on deformations near shallow foundations

Abstract

In the design of the buried-pipe systems, precise calculation of the pressures that will act on the pipe is crucial as the most essential needs of humankind are conveyed or provided by buried-pipe systems. Also, recognizition of the damage or problem is hard in the buried-pipe systems; therefore, it may take considerable amount of time to repair the system. Besides, when the pipes are placed under a foundation, classical soil response is a ected by the foundation-pipe interaction as the pipe-system creates a discontinuity in the soil. There are many parameters that a ect the pressures acting on the pipe, such as location of the pipe, relative density of the back ll, and pipe rigidity. In this work, small-scale physical model tests were conducted to examine the e ect of pipe location on the pressures acting on the pipe and failure surface. A sand back ll was used in the experiments. To nd the pipe pressures, strain gages were used, while to evaluate the changes in the extent of the a ected regions, photographs of the tests were analyzed using particle image velocimetry(PIV) method. A total of 10 tests were done with a systematic change in the burial depth and horizontal distance from the foundation. Acquired data from strain gages and from PIV analysis were analyzed and examined, and the results were discussed.