Buried pipes may transport substances that can be harmful to people and the environment. These structures may be subjected to damages caused by soil movements and external interference, such as surcharges and excavations. Different applications of geosynthetics have demonstrated that they can be used to protect buried pipes and to minimize the consequences of pipe burst. This paper discusses results of large scale laboratory tests on a flexible pipe buried in unreinforced and geosynthetic reinforced soils subjected to surface surcharges. The pipes were buried in a cohesionless soil and different types of reinforcements were tested, with a wide range of tensile stiffness values. The results obtained show that the arrangement of the reinforcement enveloping the pipe reduced significantly pipe displacements and deflections. The efficiency of the reinforcement depended on its type and physical and mechanical properties. The open geogrid tested showed less reinforcement efficiency due to the passage of soil particles through its aperture during the tests. A theoretical solution available for pipes in unreinforced soils was extended to the reinforced situation with good agreement between predictions and measurements and showed that the presence of the reinforcement is equivalent to the pipe being buried in a significantly stiffer unreinforced soil.

埋地管道可能会输送对人和环境有害的物质。这些结构可能会受到土壤运动和外部干扰（例如附加费和挖掘）造成的损坏。土工合成材料的不同应用表明，它们可用于保护埋地管道并将管道爆裂的后果降至最低。本文讨论了对埋在未加筋和土工合成材料加筋土壤中的柔性管进行大规模实验室试验的结果，该土壤受到表面超载。管道被埋在无粘性的土壤中，并测试了不同类型的增强材料，具有广泛的拉伸刚度值。获得的结果表明，包覆管道的钢筋布置显着减少了管道位移和挠度。加固的效率取决于其类型以及物理和机械性能。由于在测试期间土壤颗粒通过其孔径，测试的开放式土工格栅显示出较低的加固效率。将可用于未加筋土壤中管道的理论解决方案扩展到加筋情况，预测和测量之间具有良好的一致性，并表明存在加筋相当于将管道埋在明显更硬的未加筋土壤中。