Abstract
Seven different rib profiled polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes were investigated in a test facility developed at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. The pipes were backfilled with native Dhaka clay. Use of native soil as backfill material saves the additional costs associated with importing materials and conserves resources such as granular soil. The test facility was designed to study the performance of buried pipes under a quasi-live load. The study revealed that the PVC pipes with diameters ranging from 203 to 790 mm, areas per unit lengths of 13 to 34 sq mm/mm, and moment of inertia per unit length of 266 to 7,925 mm (to the 4th power)/mm performed reasonably well in the backfill of native Dhaka clay. Pipes were tested in three different burial depths: 600, 900, and 1,200 mm. Deflections of the pipes corresponding to a maximum wheel load of 73.3 kN (16,500 lbf) were between 0.17% and 0.64% of the pipe diameters. Deflections were calculated with the current design methods for live load and compared with the measurements. The comparison revealed that a method based on a load spreading rate of 1.15 times the depth calculated the effect of surface live load reasonably well. However, a method based on analysis of the soil-pipe interaction is required to account for live load over a wider range of installation conditions.