Anderson, Loren Runar et al "HISTORICAL SKETCH"

Structural Mechanics of Buried Pipes

Boca Raton: CRC Press LLC,2000

APPENDIX D HISTORICAL SKETCH
Pipeline engineering dates from prehistory. The
ganats of ancient Persia were underground tunnels
bored back under the mountains to collect fresh
water for the cities on the plains. The catacombs of
Egypt were remarkable underground conduits.
Medieval Paris and London had brick-lined sewers.
The subway tunnels of Saint Louis, long since
abandoned, are rediscovered as engineers study light
rail systems. The technology of buried pipes of the
past arose from experience — including failures.
The modern approach to buried pipeline engineering
began in the early 1920s by Anson Marston, Dean
of Engineering at Iowa State College. Each spring
he saw the plight of Iowa farmers as they bogged
down in quagmires of mud on the rural roads. His
concern became a rallying cry, "Let's get Iowa out
of the mud." Because of this effort, Marston was
named the first Chairman of the Highway Research
Board. As such, he reasoned, correctly, that the
first step toward adequate roads was drainage.
That meant buried drain pipes, and a procedure for
designing buried drain pipes. He proposed a theory
for predicting soil loads on buried rigid pipes. The
strengths of the pipes were determined by crushing
samples of the pipe between parallel plates. For
design, the soil loads on the buried pipes had to be
less than the parallel plate loads that caused failure.
But how much less? Tests were needed. Marston
assigned the testing to a student, M.G. Spangler,
who was instructed to bury samples of rigid pipe and
measure the soil loads on them. The objective was
to relate parallel plate loads to soil loads at pipe
failure, and thus provide a design procedure for
highway pipes and culverts.
During the time Spangler was testing rigid pipes,
flexible corrugated steel pipes appeared on the
market. Spangler realized that for flexible pipes, a
parallel plate test was not representative of field
conditions. In the field, soil at the sides of the buried
pipe supports the pipe and resists deflection. So
Spangler derived the Iowa Formula for predicting
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the ring deflection of buried flexible pipes. The
formula was based on: 1. the Marston soil load on
the pipe; 2. ring stiffness and 3. soil stiffness which
Spangler called the modulus of passive resistance of
soil. The Iowa Formula required a number of
adjustments such as deflection time lag factor,
bedding angle, and load factors. The load was soon
changed from the Marston load to prismatic soil load
plus the influence of live load. Both soil and pipe
were assumed to be elastic. The boundaries
included a plane of equal settlement which was
affected by trench or embankment condition, and
positive or negative projection. The Iowa Formula
was published in 1941 in the Iowa Engineering
Experiment Station Bulletin 153.
Spangler was convinced that buried corrugated steel
culverts invert at the top when ring deflection is
about 20%. So he applied a safety factor of four
and proposed that buried flexible pipes be limited to
5% ring deflection. Kelly of Armco Corporation
attempted to apply the Iowa Formula to corrugated
steel pipes. But the formula broke down. With 5%
ring deflection and all else constant in the formula,
Kelly plotted height of soil cover as a function of
pipe diameter. The result was that in diameters over
5 ft, the allowable height of soil cover increased as
the diameter increased. This seemed irrational. The
Iowa Formula was abandoned.
In 1957, Spangler's student R.K. Watkins,
discovered that Spangler's modulus of passive
resistance of soil had to be redefined in order to be
a correct property of material. A modified Iowa
Formula overcame the irrationality demonstrated by
Kelly. It was published in 1958 in the Proceedings
of the Highway Research Board.
Pipeline agencies commenced to publish values for
the corrected soil modulus, now called the modulus
of soil reaction. Published values were excessively
conservative. They became a catch-all for the
many assumptions in the Iowa formula, and for
430 STRUCTURAL MECHANICS OF BURIED PIPES
incautions in installation. Published values of the soil
modulus, at best, yielded only a rough, conservative
estimate of ring deflection.
From field and laboratory testing, Watkins found the
modulus of soil reaction to be elusive and
undependable — a sidewise modulus based on
vertical soil loading. It was not constant. E-prime is
a function of depth of soil cover (confinement) and
ring stiffness. Similar findings were reported by
Duncan, Molin and others.
The many factors and assumptions required to solve
the Iowa Formula made the prediction of ring
deflection less precise than direct prediction of ring
deflection based on vertical compression of the
sidefill soil. Ring deflection is related to vertical soil
compression and to the ratio of soil stiffness to ring
stiffness. Soil stiffness is found by standard
laboratory compression tests. Ring stiffness is a
form of the spring constant for a diametral line load
on the ring. For flexible pipes buried in good
granular soil, the stiffness ratio is so large that the
influence of ring stiffness is negligible and the soil
alone determines ring deflection;
Research at USU showed that: 1. Ring deflection
of buried flexible pipes is equal to (or less than)
vertical compression of the embedment (the sidefill).
2. For high soil cover, pipe "failure" is not necessarily
ring deflection (Spangler's 20%), nor is it necessarily
Marston's parallel plate load. The pipe wall can
buckle or crush by ring compression at deflection
less than 20%. In fact, the wall can buckle or crush
when deflection is zero. A pipe with high ratio of
wall strength to stiffness, such as a thin-wall steel
pipe, may buckle at less than 20% ring deflection. A
pipe with low ratio of wall strength to stiffness, such
as plastic pipe, may crush at less than 20% ring
deflection.
These observations have since been confirmed by
finite element analyses, and by tests — especially on
large diameter buried flexible steel pipes.
For flexible pipes in select soil envelopes, engineers
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can predict ring deflection as a function of vertical
soil strain. Whoever uses the Iowa Formula must
reduce the number of variables by substituting
average or assumed values for those variables that
have the least effect on the result. The Iowa
Formula is not a procedure for design. It is an
approximate procedure for predicting ring
deflection.
Ring deflection has proven to be an important limit to
be specified. Other important performance limits
include soil slip, ring collapse, and ring compression
stress as reported by White and Layer. Ring
compression is described in Chapter 6.
Other models for analysis have been proposed by
Hoeg, Luscher, Meyerhof, and others. Most are
based on elastic theory.
An elegant analysis of elastic soil embedment was
presented by Burns, J.Q., and Richards, R.M.,
Attenuation of stresses for buried cylinder s ,
Proceedings of the Symposium on Soil Structure
Interaction, University of Arizona, Sept. 1964.
Both pipe and soil were assumed to be elastic. One
analysis was for full bond between soil and pipe, and
the other was for zero friction between soil and pipe.
They provide a "feel" for pipe-soil interaction.
Performance limits require special analysis for a
variety of embedment conditions, such as
backpacking and encasements, and for new pipe
materials and configurations — especially plastics.
Stresses in plastic pipes relax under constant strain,
and creep (even to a long-term regressed strength)
under constant stress. Clearly, pipe-soil interaction
becomes complex. Basic principles of engineering
mechanics of materials are proving to be the most
dependable tools for analysis. Worst-case condi-
tions are assumed. Greater precision is not justified
because of imprecisions in soils and in installations.
Because of their versatility and corrosion resistance,
plastic pipes have increased and dominated some
buried pipe markets since World War II. Bombing
of German cities destroyed not only the industries
APPENDIX D HISTORICAL SKETCH
that provided steel for guns (and pipes), but also the
water supply pipelines that served the cities. In
desperation, one quick remedy seemed to be PVC
pipes. The Germans had led in processing and
fabricating PVC (polyvinyl-chloride). PVC pipes
were successful. Other plastic pipes soon came on
the market.
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431
With computers available for complex pipe analyses,
with new pipe configurations and materials on the
market, and with an urgent and sustained need for
buried pipes, present-day technology is only a primer
for future design of buried pipes.