ABSTRACT
In urban areas, the zone near the ground surface is often congested with existing services. These complicate the replacement of a defective service with a new line. The existing hole in the ground thus becomes valuable as a route. Pipe bursting and pipe splitting have been developed to exploit this resource. The new pipeline is installed by splitting the defective pipe and displacing the fragments outwards. This enables a new pipeline of the same or larger diameter to be pulled into place. Pipelines installed by pipe bursting are subjected to external pressure due to soil-pipe interaction and axial forces generated by the surface friction mobilized on the exterior of the pipe as it is pulled into position. The installation load may be more severe than the operational load and may govern the pulling length. This paper presents a method for estimating the external pressures on pipes pulled into place during pipe bursting. A parametric study is presented which covers a range of soil parameters and pipe geometries.
