ABSTRACT
Large diameter thermoplastic pipes are seeing increasing use in a variety of field conditions including high fills. Pipes with different profiles have been produced seeking cost-effective utilization of the materials. Research is underway to clarify the performance of such products. Various design approaches for buried pipes have been developed in the past decades based on empirical formulae, continuum theory and finite element analysis. At this point, only limited information on the field performance of these pipes is available in a form suitable for verification of the proposed design methods.
The purpose of this research is to investigate the performance limits of different profiled-wall thermoplastic pipes in the laboratory. Potential limit states for profiled large diameter flexible pipes such as excessive deflection, wall strains, circumferential buckling, and local buckling are studied. Tests have been conducted in large-scale test cells that are designed to approximately reproduce in the laboratory the field stress conditions for deeply buried pipe.
