Earth pressure acting on buried pipes

This paper introduces the author’s ten years study on earth pressure acting on buried pipes. Earth pressure concentration on the buried pipe, particularly on its top and bottom is extensively discussed by means of a full-scale field test, centrifuge model tests, and an elastic analysis. The full-scale field test revealed that high earth pressure concentrations on the pipe top and on the pipe occurred owing to the sheet-pile extraction and they caused the cracks in the concrete pipes. The centrifuge model tests using a rigid model pipe clarified the effects of the following six factors on the earth pressure concentrations: type of pipe installation, roughness of pipe surface, cover height, thickness of sand bedding, ditch width, and density of sand ground. The elastic analysis explained successfully the mechanism of the earth pressure concentrations and provided a new concept for considering the earth pressure on buried pipes.