Analysis of HDPE pipe-compacted soil interaction

The primary goal of this study was to evaluate the service life of buried HDPE (High density polyethylene) notched/un-notched pipes. The performance of notched and un-notched buried pipes subjected to live loading was studied in soil chambers for three levels of service loading. The long-term behavior was accelerated with super-ambient temperatures. Strains and diametral changes were measured for 10,000 hours. Extrapolation of the long-term performance at ambient temperature, based on the Bi-directional and the Arrhenius methods, showed that the deflection threshold (7.5% vertical change of diameter) as the governing failure condition, and similar life predictions for Bi-directional and Arrhenius methods, with service lives of approximately 30 and 80 years at ambient temperature, for the notched and un-notched pipes, respectively.