Structural Design of Pressure Pipeline Wedge-Shaped Concrete Piers

: This paper proposed a wedge concrete fixed pier device based on self-locking to solve the problems existing in the fixed pier of water supply pipeline in utility tunnels. The system converted the horizontal thrust, originally applied to the weld seam in the pipeline, into oblique downward pressure by bending the pipeline upward. When the pipeline was bent upward at an angle equal to twice the horizontal angle of the wedge concrete fixed pier, then the fixed pier achieved the variable pressure-bearing effect in the horizontal direction through the self-locking between the concrete pier and the bottom plate of the utility tunnels. In addition, this avoided the damage to the fixed pier device, caused by the instantaneous pipeline internal pressure exceeding the maximum bearing thrust of the weld seam. The wedge fixed pier could be poured twice when the pipeline entered the utility tunnels, saving the rework cost of pouring the concrete again due to the changes of the design positioning of the water supply pipeline. As long as the area of the built-in steel fittings in the wedge concrete exceeded a certain range, the wedge concrete pier would not be crushed.