Study on the Lateral Soil Resistance Acting on the Buried Pipeline

Pipe-soil interaction is a crucial problem in the global buckling design of submarine pipeline under thermal stresses. Three different diameter pipe segments were adopted to simulate the pipeline. The pipe segments lateral displacement and the corresponding suffered soil resistance were measured during the tests. The tests were carried out separately for the pipe segments with different diameters and different depth to diameter ratios. The test data showed that the lateral soil resistance acting on the pipe depends on the soil properties and pipe diameter and depth-to-diameter ratio. A numerical method was established to simulate the test data. Based on the results fitting well to the test data, the developed method was applied to analyzing the soil resistance acting on actual size pipelines. The relationship between the peak resistance and the corresponding displacement was obtained with considering the pipe diameter and depth to diameter ratio. The proposed formulae are good to study lateral global buckling of submarine pipelines under thermal stresses.