Pipe-Soil Interaction: From Theory to Real-World Applications

Aim / Background

This tutorial will cover the essential concepts, methodologies, and practical considerations related to the interaction between pipes and the surrounding soil. A comprehensive overview of pipe-soil interaction and its real-world applications will be provided, making it suitable for engineers, project managers, and anyone involved in the design and integrity management of buried pipelines.

The tutorial will be divided in four segments:

• Fundamentals of soil mechanics
  • Typical geotechnical parameters required in pipeline design & integrity assessment
• Overview of Pipe-soil interaction
  • Calculation of soil spring forces and associated displacements using the design guidelines (e.g. ALA 2005, PRCI 2017)
  • Limitations of the design guidelines
• Geotechnical aspects in pipeline design & integrity assessment
  • Real-world applications of pipe-soil interaction
  • Industry case studies
• Recent advancement in pipe-soil interaction
  • Innovations and Future Trends

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this tutorial, participants will be able to:

• Have a basic understanding of the soil strength parameters required in pipeline engineering.
• Describe different geohazards associated with pipeline engineering.
• Calculate the soil spring forces and associated displacements using the design guidelines.
• Apply equations of the design guidelines (e.g. ALA 2005, PRCI 2017) to the pipe-soil interaction problems associated with buried pipelines.
• Explain the importance of pipe-soil interaction in the design and integrity assessment of buried pipelines.

The course is ideally suited to introduce the subject of pipe-soil interaction, also as a foundation for the special geohazards tracks of the Pipeline Technology Conference (ptc 2024).

At the end of the tutorial, the participants will receive a printed handout of the tutorial materials, printed copies of the relevant publications, and links for the relevant references including video clips, online reference links etc.

Approval (for German Engineers)

The seminar "Climate Change Impact on Existing or Future Onshore Pipelines" is recognized as a training session in accordance with §6 FuWo. Consulting engineers and engineers of the German Chambers of Engineers receive 8.00 training points for participation.