Modeling of pipe-soil interaction and its application in numerical simulation

Abstract

This paper presents three plasticity models that can be applied to numerically simulate pipe-soil interaction. They can be applied individually to evaluate the force-displacement response of a small plane-strain pipe section or in combination to simulate a long pipeline system. In the latter, numerous pipe-soil elements are attached to structural finite elements, each simulating localized foundation restraint along the pipeline. The three models are increasing in sophistication, mainly due to the manner in which they account for the behavior within an allowable combined loading surface. The first is based on traditional strain-hardening plasticity theory and therefore assumes a purely elasti..