Numerical Modeling of Buried Pipe under Wheel Loads Using FLAC 3D

Abstract

A steel pipe is buried at a shallow depth beneath a roadway. The behavior of steel pipe during wheel load was studied in this paper by FLAC 3D. An analysis is needed to evaluate the effect of wheel loading on the road surface deflection and pipe deformation. The top of the pipe is 1.5m beneath the road surface. The pipe has an outer diameter of 4m and is 0.12m thick. The pipe excavation is 15m wide and 6m depth. The steel pipe is placed on a 0.4m thick layer of soil backfill, and then soil is compacted around the steel pipe. The wheel load is increased during failure occurs in the soil. Soil backfill behavior has been considered with Mohr-Coulomb Model in analysis. The analysis defines the failure load and the resulting soil and pipe displacement.