FAILURE OF A FLEXIBLE PIPE WIfiI A CONCRETE

LINER
MARK TALESNICI(i and RAFAEL BAKER
Deparrrnent of Civil Enginrcring, Techniqp.
Trchrrolo3y. Haifa 32000, trracl

I$.rl lnrtirurc of

(Receloed 15 Scptcnbtr 19971

Aictrect-This rludy documeots lhc functional failurs ola concrclo
lined rlecl cewrgo pipe, Symptomr of thc ppe failua rrc pr$cnled.
Failurc of lhc piPc systcm crn bc aurihttcd to incompadbitily
bctwcen thc
mechanical bchavior of lh. pipe .nd lhc tncthodology cmployrd in its
dorigrr, Thc undcrlyinj raulc of thc failurc may bc traced to t lack of
sufrcicnt baekill sriffncs* ,, riru tmtirrg rvas trred to evaluatc thc
stiffncss of thc sidc backfill. Thc orisiing pipe-trcnch rystcm
condition war rnrlyrcd numcrically and a criterion developod lor ths
considcration of thr rtructural intcgrity of thc pipclinc, @ 1998
Ekcdor Scicnce Ltd. All righlr rscrwd,
Kcywor&l Corosion protcction, fitrwrs for purposa, pipclinc failurel,
I. INTRODUCTION
The prcscnt papcr documents a failure of a large diamcter concretc lined steel
scwagc pipe, buried in a clay soil profile. The projoct consistcd of a 3.5 km
long gravity pipc in ccntral Isracl which failed before bcing placed in scrvicc.
Thc prcscnt contribution documents thc failure of this pip+ trench $ystom.
Ficld and laboratory testing provided significant insight into the probable
causc(s) of failure. The casc study acccntuates somc basic decign principlcs,
os well as the use of simplc ficld tcst$ as an effectivc diagnostic tool to
cvaluate sitc conditions.
2. DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND SITE CONDITIONS
Thc scwaga piplinc wa6 designed and constructed in ccntral Isracl during
I992-1994. The design called for a stecl pipe with an inner diameter of 120
cm and a wall thickncss of 0.64 cm. The inner surfaoe of the pipe was lined
with an aluminum based ccrnent of betwccr L8 and 2.2 cm thickrrx;
The primary purposc of the innor lincr was to provide proteclion of the stccl
pipe from the 4fiots of the corrosive sowagc flowing inside, The outcr surfae of
thc pipe was covcred by a2,5 cm,lhick concrete hyer.
The design of the pipc*trench system was based on a floxiblo pipc criterion.
This implics that the pipe maintains structural and functional intcgrity by
mobilizing latcral rosistancc from the surrounding soil. The pipc was
designcd to withstand static soil loads alone,
A design ssction of tho pipc-trench systcm is shown schomatically in Fig. l.
The pipc invcrt was founded at a depth ofbetween 4.5 and 5.5 m below thc
ground surface, dcpcnding on thc natural topography.
The natural soil
consists of a highly plastic clay (CH, liquid limit: qrr * 620/o, plasticity index
I, = 36%), A puchcd watcr table (dcpths of as little as 2-3 m) cxists in part of
the project arca. The design specified the cxcavation of a2.5 m wide trcnch

(twice the pipc dihtetcr), placomcnt of a 20 cm thick layer of poorly graded

gravcl (GP) with a particle sizc bctween l6 and 20 mm. The pipe was placed
directly on the gravel layer. Following placement of the pipe soctior the
design spocified that (a) dune sand (SP) with calcareous concrelions (Doo :
0.I7 mm and Dro : 0.12 mm) be placpd around thc pipe to a height of 30 cm
abova thc pipe crown elevation; (b) above that
'Author

to whorn corrcspondcncc rhould bc addttrsed,

Reprinted from Englneerlng Failure Anatysis 5 (3), 247-259 (1998)