Techno Press
You logged in as. Techno Press

Geomechanics and Engineering
  Volume 24, Number 6, March25 2021 , pages 599-610
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12989/gae.2021.24.6.599
 


Vertical load on a conduit buried under a sloping ground
Muhammad U. A. Khan and Sanjay K. Shukla

 
Abstract
    Conduits are commonly installed below the ground for utility conveyance around the world. Vertical load on a buried conduit is an important parameter that needs to be known to ensure its safe design and installation. Consideration of soil arching in load calculations helps achieve a more realistic and efficient design. In the past, considering the arching effect, the design charts have been presented for use by practicing engineers to calculate the vertical load on the conduit buried below the level ground. There are currently no design charts for calculating the vertical load on the conduit buried under a sloping ground. In this paper, an attempt has been made to present the derivation of a generalized analytical expression considering that the soil mass overlying the conduit has a sloping face and the arching phenomenon takes place. The developed generalized expression has been used to present some design charts considering specific values of slope geometry, soil properties and burial depths. Furthermore, analytical results for specific soil parameters have been compared with the results extracted from a commercial software PLAXIS 2D, for a developed numerical model and an independent study.
 
Key Words
    arching; finite element analysis; sloping ground; soil-conduit interaction; vertical load
 
Address
Muhammad U. A. Khan: 1.) Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering Research Group, School of Engineering, Edith Cowan University, WA 6027, Australia
2.) Department of Civil Engineering, Mirpur University of Science and Technology, Mirpur, Azad Kashmir, Pakistan

Sanjay K. Shukla: 1.) Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering Research Group, School of Engineering, Edith Cowan University, WA 6027, Australia
2.) Department of Civil Engineering, Delhi Technological University, Delhi, India
 

Techno-Press: Publishers of international journals and conference proceedings.       Copyright © 2025 Techno Press
P.O. Box 33, Yuseong, Daejeon 305-600 Korea, Tel: +82-42-828-7996, Fax : +82-42-828-7997, Email: admin@techno-press.com