Pipe-Soil Interaction and Sensitivity Study of Large-Diameter Buried Steel Pipes

Large-diameter buried steel pipes (BSPs) have been widely utilized in water diversion and hydropower fields. This paper presents a comprehensive numerical investigation on the interaction between the large-diameter pipe and soil under three typical working conditions, to capture the structural mechanical behaviors of pipe deformation, soil displacement, and soil pressure. Furthermore, a parametric analysis of pipe diameter is conducted, along with the sensitivity study of soil parameters based on the orthogonal test method. The results show that the water weight increases the pipe deformation significantly by 14%, while the high internal water pressure decreases the deformation greatly with the maximum effect of 39%. The pattern of soil pressure at the top of the pipe changes from parabola to double-hump as the pipe diameter varies from 0.5 m to 5.0 m. The pipe deformation and soil pressure keep increasing with the pipe diameter, but the safety margin for prism load decreases gradually. Pipe deformation and soil pressure are very sensitive to the elastic modulus and Poisson’s ratio of backfill. Friction coefficients of soil-soil (trench sidewall) and pipe-soil have great influences on the soil pressure, while the bedding material and backfill cohesion have small effects on it.