Numerical Modeling of Pipe-Soil Interaction Under Transverse Direction

Based on the Winkler method, a pipe can be treated as a beam, and pipe-soil interactions can be represented by soil springs in the axial, horizontal and vertical directions. Pipe deflection and resultant forces are correlated by coefficient K in the equation F=Kδ, where F is the resultant force and δ is the pipe displacement. This paper studies pipe-soil interaction for pipelines buried in clay and sand subjected to displacements in oblique directions. The objective is to measure the effect of soil parameters on coefficient K as well as the maximum soil resistance. Pipe-soil behavior has been studied using the finite element software ABAQUS/CAE. There are 48 models in total with varying soil parameters, pipe burial depth and pipe-soil interaction friction for the investigation of the effect of each variable on pipe-soil behavior. In addition, the finite element results have been compared to the analytical results from American Lifelines Alliance guideline (ALA, 2001) and proposed failure envelopes in previous studies.