| Abstract: | During horizontal directional drilling and pipe bursting installations, the shear forces between the pipe and the surrounding soil play a major role in the tensile loads and stresses experienced by the pipe. The magnitudes and variations in the shear forces are controlled by the pipe-soil interaction characteristics. This paper discusses the shear interaction between the pipe and the soil during those trenchless installations. A pipe-soil interaction mechanism is described that quantifies the relationship between the shear force and shear displacement, as well as the shear force at which sliding takes place. A simple analytical approach, as well as a finite element procedure, is employed to provide guidelines on practical values of the pipe-soil interaction stiffness and to investigate the effect of some soil and geometric parameters on the interaction stiffness magnitude. |
