Dynamic Behavior of Buried Flexible Pipes of Varying Thickness Using the Shaking Table Test

In designing a pipeline, deflection and stress of the pipe are calculated through structural analysis based on bending ring stiffness EI/D³ . The pipes with equivalent bending ring stiffness would have the same behavior in design. However, it is easily understandable that the behavior of pipe may be influenced not only by EI/D³, but also by the relationships between E and I. In this paper, shaking table test for buried flexible pipes were conducted to evaluate the effects of pipe thickness on the dynamic behavior. Some pipes having approximately equivalent bending ring stiffness and different thickness were used. In this experiment, these pipes were buried in the laminar box and shaken by horizontal sine wave. As a result, it was found that the larger bending strain and radial stress of the pipe occurred with the thinner wall. This result suggests that the probability of the buckling of the pipe is higher on thinner pipes. It is evident that the pipelines for irrigation should be designed in consideration of this fact.