Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Applied Sciences: Research Areas

Article Title: Analysis of Variations in Deflection and Stresses in Buried PVC Pipe Protected With an Eps Geofoam Layer
by Adesogan, S.O and Alawode, K.J

Abstract:
This study examines the behaviour of buried Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) pipe under static traffic load, through detailed deflection and stress analysis, when a layer of EPS geofoam is placed in the trench with the pipe, using finite elements method of analysis. The finite element program, ABAQUS, was selected for the three dimensional static analysis of the buried pipe. In the model, pipes were buried at 600mm, 700mm, 800mm, 900mm and 1000mm in saturated sandy soils, moist sandy soils, saturated cohesive soils and moist cohesive soils.EPS geofoam 19, 29 and 46 were considered in the study to investigate the influence of reducing compressibility of the geofoams on deflection and stress at the crown of the pipes. A road section, with 100mm asphalt concrete, 200mm base and 100mm sub-base was included on top of the soil, caring a vehicular surface load of 1100kPa in all cases of the analysis. The results indicate that there was a 0.14%reduction in stresses and 1.32% reduction in vertical deflection at the pipe crown with the use of the EPS geofoam when compared with the condition when no EPS geofoam was installed. The pipe in the sandy soil had higher stresses and vertical deflection than those in corresponding cohesive soil at all buried depths considered in this study because the sandy soil has a higher friction angle than cohesive soil. Also, the pipes in the saturated soils had lower stresses and vertical deflection, compared to those in moist soils. Hence, the study concludes that finite element method is effective for the analysis of buried pipes and EPS Geofoam can be used with buried pipes for reduction of stresses and vertical deflection

Keywords: buried pvc pipe, eps geofoam, finite element method, variation in deflections, stress analysis.

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