Soil Stresses on Carbon Steel Pipe Undergoing Uplift

This paper presents a three-dimensional numerical study to evaluate the variations in stresses in the soil mass surrounding a carbon steel pipe class API 5L X60 submitted to uplift due to ground elevation. Analyses were carried out for soil relative density, pipe stiffness and surficial surcharge loading. Results have shown that stress variations due to uplift are lower for looser backfill soils and flexible pipes. Stress variations in pipe invert are meaningful in the vicinity of the region between stable and unstable soil masses.