Deflection of buried prestressed concrete cylinder pipe with soil-pipe interaction

The deflection of the buried pipe is a function of the load on the pipe, and also the load on the pipe is a function of the deflection. It is a typical soil-pipe interaction. The vertical deflection of buried pipe with the soil properties has been relatively well studied, however, there is no proper and practical guideline on the horizontal deflection of buried pipe considering the soil-pipe interaction. In practice, the horizontal deflection is considered as the same as the vertical deflection and it provides unnecessary conservative design. In this study, the deflection of buried prestressed concrete cylinder pipe is measured using a selected soil model. A finite element model is built to reflect the soil properties, as well as the backfill and in-situ condition. An equation for horizontal deflection of buried pipe considering soil-pipe interaction is proposed.