CIRCULAR PIPE LOADED LATERALLY IN COHESIVE SOIL

CIRCULAR PIPE LOADED LATERALLY IN COHESIVE SOIL

This document describes an example that has been used to verify the the 3D
isoparametric interface elements in PLAXIS 3D.
Used version:
• PLAXIS 3D - Version 2012
Input: Figure 1 represents the model and considered material properties for a circular
pipe embedded in soil. The circular pipe has a diameter of 5 m and is embedded in a
uniform soil layer which is 45 m long and 35 m large. The thickness of the soil layer has
been set to 1 m for convenience. For symmetry reasons only half of the geometry has
been considered in the PLAXIS 3D model. A refinement region is introduced around the
pipe. A line load of Fx = 250 kN/m has been applied on half model (which is equivalent to
Feq = 500 kN/m for the entire geometry) along the line shared by the disc and the front
model boundary. Displacements in normal directions for all 6 model boundaries have
been prevented.

15 m 15 m 15 m
9.0 m

8.5 m

1.0 m

Figure 1 Model geometry

Materials: The adopted material parameters are summarized as follows:

Soil: Mohr-Coulomb E = 30000 kN/m2 cu = 5 kN/m2 ν = 0.495

The plug (material inside the cylinder) is modelled as stiff elastic material with E = 30
·106 and ν = 0.495.
Meshing: The Expert settings as shown in Figure 2 are used to generate the mesh.

Figure 2 Expert settings used to generate the mesh

The cluster surrounding the pipe is refined by a Fineness factor of 0.1. The outermost soil
cluster is coarsened by a Fineness factor of 3.0. The resulting mesh is shown in Figure 3.
Calculations: The project is calculated for different values of the interface strength

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Figure 3 The finite element mesh

Rinter . The values considered are given in Table 1.

Output: The distribution of deformation at failure is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4 Deformation at failure

Verification: The analytical solution for the ultimate capacity of the cylinder has been
derived by Randolph & Houlsby (1984) as follows:
 
P ∆ ∆
= π + 2∆ + 2cos∆ + 4 cos + sin
cu D 2 2
where:

sin ∆ = Rint

Comparison between analytical and PLAXIS 3D results for the ultimate capacity values
are summarized in Table 1.
Table 1 Comparison between analytical and PLAXIS 3D results for the ultimate capacity values

Analytical PLAXIS 3D Error

Rint = 1.0 298.5 kN/m 304 kN/m + 1.8 %
Rint = 0.8 289.1 kN/m 294 kN/m + 1.9 %
Rint = 0.6 277.2 kN/m 282 kN/m + 2.0 %
Rint = 0.4 263.3 kN/m 270 kN/m + 2.5 %
Rint = 0.2 247.2 kN/m 254 kN/m + 2.9 %

The initial slope of the load-displacement curve where the soil behaviour can be
assumed to be elastic can be expressed as Baguelin F. & Said (1977):

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 CIRCULAR PIPE LOADED LATERALLY IN COHESIVE SOIL

8πE(1 − ν)
Kxx =  
R 2 2
(1 + ν) (3 − 4ν) ln( ) −
r0 3 − 4ν
Assuming R = 22.5m, r0 = 2.5 m one obtains Kxx = 88877 kN/m. Figure 5 presents the
load-displacement curves obtained in PLAXIS 3D for different Rint values.

Figure 5 Load-displacement curves obtained in PLAXIS 3D for different Rint values

It can be concluded that PLAXIS 3D results are in close agreement with analytical results
for both ultimate capacity and initial elastic stiffness of a laterally loaded cylinder in
undrained conditions.

REFERENCES

[1] Baguelin F., Frank, R., Said, Y. (1977). Theoretical study of lateral reaction
mechanism of piles. Geotechnique, 27, No. 3, 405–434.
[2] Randolph, M., Houlsby, G. (1984). The limiting pressure on a circular pile loaded
laterally in cohesive soil. Geotechnique, 34, No. 4, 613–623.

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