ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the difficulties associated with modelling this class of problem and discuss the achievements of some of the studies undertaken. It considers the modelling of buried pipes and culverts, and trench, shaft and tunnel excavations in soils ranging from sands, where the soil behaviour is fully drained, to clays, where the soil behaviour is initially untrained followed by time-dependent diffusion effects as excess pore pressures dissipate. Installing buried pipes requires a trench to be excavated, the pipe placed and the trench backfilled. All urban development involves installation of services which utilise buried pipes. The pipe may be placed in a trench with vertical or battered side slopes and backfill subsequently compacted around the pipe. The applied load-pipe deflection curves were similar although the prototype pipe appeared to have a slightly stiffer response. A number of model pipes were used which had different stiffness’s. Prior to sheet pile extraction, the pipes were fairly uniformly loaded.
