Mechanical behavior of underground pipe gallery structure considering ground fissure

The mechanical behavior of underground pipe gallery is a key research issue due to the static/dynamic states which exist in a ground fissure area.This study took an underground pipe gallery project in Xi’an,China as the research object.We analyzed the stress/strain characteristics of the pipe gallery structure and surrounding soil under static/dynamic conditions by the numerical simulation methods in detail.Based on the results,we proposed a theoretical calculation model for the pipe gallery structure considering the influence of the ground fissure,and combined with engineering examples for calculation and discussion.Subsequent results showed that:(1)the effective activity range of ground fissure on the deformation of the pipe gallery structure was mainly from 0.0 m(horizontal direction of ground fissure)to 32.0 m.In activity range,the pipe gallery structure is prone to failure,owing to the large soil deformation in the vertical direction;(2)with the increase of ground fissure settlement,a stress reduction area near the ground fissure appeared at the bottom of the hanging wall of the pipe gallery structure,and a local void phenomenon was revealed.The length of the local void is 6.0 m to 8.0 m under the maximum settlement(0.8 m)of the ground fissure;(3)Compared with the static conditions,the vertical and horizontal displacements of the pipe gallery structure and surrounding soil under the seismic action were little,and there were tensioncompression and torsion-shear effects in corner of the square pipe gallery structure(with a stress concentration phenomenon).The deformation law of pipe gallery structure and surrounding soil considering ground fissure and the theoretical model of pipe gallery structure established in this paper can provide reference for practical engineering.

Image analysis of soil failure on defective underground pipe due to cyclic water supply and drainage using X-ray CT

The ground subsidence on the underground pipe often is caused with the reduction of the effective stress and the loss of suction in the base course and then,soil drainage into the pipe.The final formation of the cavity growth in the ground was observed as the ground subsidence.Authors focused this problem and hence performed model tests with water-inflow and drainage cycle in the model ground.The mechanism of cavity generation in the model ground was observed using an X-ray Computed Tomography(CT)scanner.In those studies,water was supplied into the model grounds from the defected underground pipe model in case of the change of relative density and grain size distribution.As results,it was observed that the loosening area was generated from the defected part with water-inflow and some of the soil particles in the ground were drained into the underground pipe through the defected part.And afterward,the cavity was generated just above the defected part of the model pipe in the ground.Based on this observation,it might be said that the bulk density of soil around the defected pipe played one of key factor to generate the cavity in the ground.Moreover,the dimension of the defected part should be related to the magnification of the ground subsidence,in particular,crack width on a sewerage pipe and particle size would be the quantitative factor to evaluate the magnification of the ground subsidence.In this paper,it was concluded that the low relative density of soil would become the critical factor to cause the fatal failure of model ground if the maximum grain size was close to the dimension of crack width of defective part.The fatal collapse of the ground with high relative density more than 80%would be avoided in a few cycles of water inflow and soil drainage.

Multiphysics extension to physically based analyses of pipes with emphasis on frost actions

Pipes,especially buried pipes,in cold regions generally experience a rash of failures during cold weather snaps.However,the existing heuristic models are unable to explain the basic processes involving frost actions.This is because the frost action is not a direct load but one that causes variations in pipe-soil interactions resulting from the coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical process in soils.This paper developed and implemented a holistic multiphysics simulation model for freezing soils and extended it to the analysis of pipe-soil systems.The theoretical framework was implemented to analyze both static and dynamic responses of buried pipes subjected to frost actions.The multiphysics simulations reproduced phenomena commonly observed during frost actions,e.g.,ice fringe advancement and an increase in the internal stress of pipes.The influences of important design factors,i.e.,buried depth and overburden pressure,on pipe responses were simulated.A fatigue cracking criterion was utilized to predict the crack initialization under the joint effects of frost and dynamic traffic loads.The frost effects were found to have detrimental effects for accelerating fatigue crack initialization in pipes.