EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON THE EFFECT OF EMBEDMENT DEPTH OF BURIED FLEXIBLE PIPE SUBJECTED TO STATIC LOAD

Abstract

The experimental work of this study deals with the problem of buried UPVC pipe in sand with different pipe responses subjected to incremental static loading where the backfill densities changed (loose, medium, and dense with different burial depth (1.5 d,2 d, and 3d). The objectives of the current study are to study the effect of changing the buried depth on the behavior of a buried flexible pipe in a sand soil through experimental model. It was found that the effect of the applied surface load on the crown strain is reduced by increasing the burial depth by about 19.6% when the embedment depth changes from 1.5 d to 2 d and 29.4% when it changes from 1.5 d to 3 d in loose sand. While these percents become to 13.1% and 32.2% in the medium sand and to 21.4% and 40% in the dense sand. It is concluded from these results that the increase in the depth of burial and sand density sponsor by reducing the strain on the perimeter of the pipe and thus the pipe is protected from the distortions that lead to breakage the pipe.