TECHNOLOGY::
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uried pipelines for the conveyance of potable water
and sanitary sewers form the bedrock of our civiliza-
tion.The very baSic services that we take for granted ,
lar global pipe materials industry. Another relatively new
construction method in buried pipeline construction and
rehabilitation is the advent of trenchless technology.
such as a running faucet with clean drinking water and the While trenchless technology is no longer' in its infancy,
ability of our wastewater to be transported away from our the only known and practiced trenchless construction
homes and businesses for treatment and release into the methods during Marston's lifetime included jacking and
envirolUnent, are possible because of the vast network of tunneling, and little else. But a tremendous anlount of
buried pipes that lie hidden beneath roads and the con- research in the last two decades now provides design engi-
crete jungles that define the large urban centers that are neers and contractors with an understanding of the pipe-
our cities. soil mechanics of pipelines built by methods other than
These intricate networks consist of various types of pipe traditional open-trench methods.
materials that range from metals to concrete to plastics to
composites.Whatever the material type, all are expected to Classical Pipe-Soil Interaction Theory
provide some minimum service qualities: prevention of In 1913, and 1930, Marston published his original
leaks, which ensure that potable water isn't compromised papers "The Theory of Loads on Pipes in Ditches and
by contaminants entering a piping system and that waste- Tests of Cement and Clay Drain Tile and Sewer Pipe " and
waters do not pollute soils and existing sources of ground- "The Theory of External Loads on Closed Conduits in the
water, and most importantly, that the structural soundness Light of the Latest Experiments ," respectively, marking
of a buried pipe system results in a minimum service life of the earliest systematic approach of studying the struc-
50 to 100 years. The latter can only be ensured through a tural mechanics of buried pipes. Thus was defined the
thorough understanding of and designing for ·the loa'ds to MarstonTheory of Loads on buried conduitsThis became,
which a buried pipe will be exposed, its response to the in part, the very foundation on which much of the later
loading, and the interaction mechanism between the pipe work around the world on earth loading technology of
and surrounding soils. buried pipes was based. In 1941 , Marston 's student
While an understanding of pipe-soil interaction is impor- Merlin Spangler, known today as "the father of buried
tant for the sound structural design of pipelines, it should flexible pipe design ," published another ground-breaking
be noted that the concern for soil pressure on a pipe is paper, "The Structural Design of Flexible Pipe Culverts,"
linlited to empty pipe or gravity flow pipelines where the in which he derived an equation, the Iowa Formula, for
conduit never flows full. In municipal pressure piping sys- predicting the ring deflection of buried flexible pipes.
tems, the internal pressure is typically much greater than Spangler would later become chairman of the Culvert
soil pressure on the pipe; internal pressure essentially sup- Committee of the federal Transportation Research Board .
ports the soil load when the line is placed into service. In 1958, Spangler's student, Reynold Watkins , published
The story of tlle formal study of buried pipe structures in "Some Characteristics of the Modulus of Passive
orth America begins in Ames, Iowa, at the turn of the 20m Resistance of Soil - A study in Similitude," in which he
Century, when Dr.Anson Marston, then Dean of Engineering solved a fundamental flaw in the dimensions of a modu-
at the Iowa State College (now Iowa State University) and lus of passive resistance in Spangler's Iowa Formula,
the first Chairman of the Iowa State Highway CommisSion, defUling a new modulus of horizontal soil reaction, E', in
analyzed oil pressures on buried culverts in an effort to the Modified Iowa Equation. In later years , other signifi-
drain muddy rural roads. Research was also necessary as cant contributions came from A. Howard, ]. Duncan, ].
mousands of small wooden bridges were being replaced by Hartley, F. Heger, T. McGrath, M. Zargbamee, and others
concrete and clay pipes placed in stream beds underneath that now enable the external load design of rigid and
roadway embankments. It was necessary to design them flexible pipes to be an even more .., exact science .
properly so that they would not fail .
Buried pipe deSign, then, was inextricably connected to The Marston Load Theory
the development of highway systems in the United States. In his analysis of external loads on buried pipe, Marston
Marston was the first Chairman of the federal Highway defined two main types of loading conditions of buried
Research Board. Our knowledge of pipe-soil interaction, as pipes, a ditch conduit (referred to as trench load condition
well as the development of new pipe materials and the in present day nomenclature), and a projecting conduit
improvement of traditional ones, has grown by leaps and (referred to as an embankment condition in present day
bounds since those early days, leading to a multi-billion dol- literature), Table 1.
g
N.anlcroundMoril(t
Ditch Conduit Trench Load Pipe is installed in a narrow trench Pipes that display this behavior
Condition (generall y', trench width :::; 2 x pipe when buried are referred to as
diameter) in undisturbed soil, then Flexible Pipes. Use of the prism
r backfi lled to natural ground load is conservative because
surface level installers do not compact soil
.-
Proiecting Conduit I Embankment Condition against the pipe. The pipe is
Positive Projecting Positive Pipe is installed underneath an ""
.-",..,--.-
embedded in a "packing" of less
Conduit Em bankment embankment, in shallow bedding, dense soil that erves the same
Condition t wi its top proj ecting above the way as does packing around an
Positive
Proj ecting
surface of the natural ground -0-
..... ""'"
item in a shipping container. The
pipe is relieved of part of the
Embankment prism load which the soil then
·ropol£m~1Il
Negative Proj ecting Negative Pipe is instal led underneath an picks up in arching action over
Conduit Embankment embankment, in narrow and """"''''''''' the pipe.
Condition I
Negative
Proj ecting
Embankment
shallow trench with its top at an
elevation below natural ground
surface
lOr As a general rule, flexible pipes
will deflect at least 2 percent
without structural distress. Most
flexible pipe material standards
Imperfect Ditch Induced Trench Special case, similar to Negative ... ~- allow up to 5 percent deflection.
Conduit Condition Embankment Condition, but more .......
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Figure 3a, 3b: Embankment Condition Soil Loading in Rigid Pipe, in Flexible Pipe
Furthermore, the two additional figures shown below, will be helpful in obtaining a better
understanding of the Marston Load Theory, as well as the differences between Rigid and
Flexible pipes, as discussed in the article.