Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Soil-pipe-atmosphere interaction under field conditions

  • Original paper
  • Published:
Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Unsaturated clay deposits swell and shrink as a result of seasonal variations in climatic conditions and affect the performance of underground infrastructure systems. This paper investigates the response of a 150-mm PVC pipe buried in a highly plastic clay deposit under field conditions. A numerical model was established to integrate the daily climatic conditions. To accurately model field performance, the developed numerical model incorporated the use of a bimodal soil water characteristic curve (SWCC) and the simulation of the hydraulic characteristics of a cracked soil structure. The model results showed that the response of both the soil and the pipe was influenced by soil properties (native and backfill), the depth below the ground surface, and most importantly, the surface boundary condition (sealed versus unsealed surface). Although the pipe trench was covered by a pavement structure, the backfill material consisting of granular materials (i.e., mixed concrete) showed a noticeable variation in volumetric water content (VWC) with time. It was also observed that the effects of the atmosphere extended below the pipe burial depth to a depth of 4 m in the clay soil surrounding the trench. While the pipe trench was backfilled with a non-expansive material, the pipe experienced fluctuating displacements throughout the year. Finally, the model was utilized to give insight into the actual flux transferred through the pavement structure to the backfill material surrounding the pipe. It was predicted that approximately 30% of the surface net flux permeated the pavement structure and interacted with the underlying backfill materials.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13
Fig. 14
Fig. 15
Fig. 16
Fig. 17
Fig. 18
Fig. 19
Fig. 20
Fig. 21
Fig. 22
Fig. 23
Fig. 24
Fig. 25

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Al Nakshabandi G, Kohnke H (1965) Thermal conductivity and diffusivity of soils as related to moisture tension and other physical properties. Agric Meteorol 2:271–279

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Albrecht BA, Benson CH (2001) Effect of desiccation on compacted natural clays. J Geotech Geoenviron 127:67–75

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson D (2010) Vertisolic soils of the Prairie Region Prairie. Soils Crops 3:29–36

    Google Scholar 

  • Baver LD, Gardner WH, Gardner WR (1972) Soil physics. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Becker BR, Fricke BA (1997) Effects of saturation and dry density on soil thermal conductivity. Canada. International Conference on Heat Pumps in Cold Climates, Wolfville

  • Becker BR, Misra A, Fricke BA (1992) Development of correlations for soil thermal conductivity. Int Commun Heat Mass Transfer 19:59–68

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Black PE (2007) Revisiting the Thornthwaite and Mather water balance 1. J Am Water Resour Assoc 43(6):1604–1605

  • Burger CA, Shackelford CD (2001) Soil-water characteristic curves and dual porosity of sand–diatomaceous earth mixtures. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng 127(9):790–800

  • Christiansen EA (1979) The Wisconsinan deglaciation, of southern Saskatchewan and adjacent areas. Can J Earth Sci 16:913–938

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Christiansen E, Sauer EK (2002) Stratigraphy and structure of Pleistocene collapse in the Regina Low, Saskatchewan, Canada Canadian. J Earth Sci 39:1411–1423

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark CM (1971) Expansive-soil effect on buried pipe. Am Water Works Assoc 63:424–427

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Committee CGSF (Canadian Geotechnical Society Foundations Committee) (2006) Canadian Foundation Engineering Manual. Canadian Geotechnical Society, BiTech Publishers Ltd., Richmond

  • de FN Gitirana G Jr, Fredlund DG (2004) Soil-water characteristic curve equation with independent properties. J Geotech Geoenviron 130:209–212

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Vries D (1952) The thermal conductivity of soil MededeUngen van de Landbouwhogeschoolte. Wagen 52:1–73

    Google Scholar 

  • de Vries D (1963) Thermal properties of soils. Physics of plant environment. North-Holland Publishing Co., Amsterdam

    Google Scholar 

  • Elkady TY (2014) Unsaturated characteristics of undisturbed expansive shale from Saudi Arabia Arabian. J Geosci 7:2031–2040

    Google Scholar 

  • Farouki OT (1986) Thermal properties of soils. Trans Tech Publications, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Fourier JBJ (1878) The analytical theory of heat. University Press in Cambridge, London

  • Fredlund D, Gitirana G Jr (2005) Unsaturated soil mechanics as a series of partial differential equations. In: Proceedings of International Conference on Problematic Soils, vol 25, pp 27

  • Fredlund DG, Rahardjo H (1993) Soil mechanics for unsaturated soils. John Wiley & Sons, Toronto

  • Fredlund DG, Xing A (1994) Equations for the soil-water characteristic curve. Can Geotech J 31:521–532

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gardner W (1958) Some steady-state solutions of the unsaturated moisture flow equation with application to evaporation from a water table. Soil Sci 85:228–232

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gitirana Jr GFN (2005) Weather-related geo-hazard assessment model for railway embankment stability. PhD Thesis. University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon

  • Gould SJF (2011) A study of the failure of buried reticulation pipes in reactive soils. PhD Thesis. Faculty of Engineering. Dept. of Civil Engineering. Monash University, Melbourne

  • Gray DM (1973) Handbook on the principles of hydrology. Water Information Center, Inc., Port Washington

  • Hillel D (1982) Introduction to soil physics vol 364. Academic press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Hu Y, Lotfian K (2006) Field installation of an instrumented section of water main pipe on Emerald Park Road, October 24 to 31, 2005. National Research Council Centre for Sustainable Infrastructure Research, Regina, Sask. Progress Report to the City of Regina

  • Hu Y, Vu HQ (2011) Analysis of soil conditions and pipe behaviour at a field site. Can Geotech J 48:847–866

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hudak P, Sadler B, Hunter B (1998) Analyzing underground water-pipe breaks in residual soils. Water Eng Manag 145:15–20

    Google Scholar 

  • Johansen O (1975) Thermal conductivity of soils. PhD Thesis, Trondheim, Norway (CRREL Draft Translation 637, 1977) ADA 44002

  • Kersten MS (1949) Laboratory research for the determination of the thermal properties of soils. University of Minneapolis, Minn

    Google Scholar 

  • Kodikara J, Barbour S, Fredlund DG (2002) Structure development in surficial heavy clay soils: a synthesis of mechanisms. Australian Geomechanics: Journal and News of the Australian Geomechanics Society 37(3):25

  • Leong EC, Rahardjo H (1997) Permeability functions for unsaturated soils. J Geotech Geoenviron 123:1118–1126

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu Y (2005) Three dimensional finite element modeling of pavement subsurface drainage systems. Thesis (PhD). University of Kentucky, Lexington

  • Miller CJ, Mi H, Yesiller N (1998) Experimental analysis of desiccation crack propagation in clay liners 1. J Am Water Resour Assoc 34(3):677–686

  • Milly P (1984) A linear analysis of thermal effects on evaporation from soil. Water Resour Res 20:1075–1085

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell J (1991) Conduction phenomena: from theory to geotechnical practice. Geotechnique 41:299–340

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell J (1993) Fundamentals of soil behavior. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Mollard J, Kozicki P, Adelman T (1998) Some geological, groundwater, geotechnical and geoenvironmental characteristics of the Regina area. Saskatchewan, Canada Urban geology of Canadian cities

    Google Scholar 

  • Morris R (1967) Principal causes and remedies of water main breaks American Water Works Association:782–798

  • Morris PH, Graham J, Williams DJ (1992) Cracking in drying soils. Can Geotech J 29:263–277

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nahlawi H, Kodikara J (2006) Laboratory experiments on desiccation cracking of thin soil layers. Geotech Geol Eng 24:1641–1664

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • PDE Solutions Inc. (2014) User Guide - FlexPDE 6. www.pdesolutions.com. Accessed July 01, 2014

  • Penman HL (1948) Natural evaporation from open water, bare soil and grass. In: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 193(1032):120–145

  • Pentland J, Gitirana G Jr, Fredlund D (2001) Use of a general partial differential equation solver for solution of mass and heat transfer problems in geotechnical engineering. In: Proc., 4th Brazilian Symp. On Unsaturated Soils, UNSAT 2001, Porto Alerge, RS, Brazil, pp 29–36

  • Pham HQ (2005) A volume-mass constitutive model for unsaturated soils. PhD thesis, Univ. of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Sask

  • Rajeev P, Chan D, Kodikara J (2012) Ground–atmosphere interaction modelling for long-term prediction of soil moisture and temperature. Can Geotech J 49:1059–1073

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rutten MM, Steele-Dunne SC, Judge J, van de Giesen N (2010) Understanding heat transfer in the shallow subsurface using temperature observations. Vadose Zone J 9:1034–1045

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saadeldin R, Henni A (2016) A novel modeling approach for the simulation of soil-water interaction in a highly plastic clay. Geomech Geophys Geoenergy Georesour 2:77–95

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saadeldin R, Hu Y, Henni A (2015) Numerical analysis of buried pipes under field geo-environmental conditions. Int J Geoeng 6(1):1–22

    Google Scholar 

  • Vanapalli S, Pufahl D, Fredlund D (1998) The effect of stress state on the soil-water characteristic behavior of a compacted sandy-clay till. In: Proceedings of the 51st Canadian Geotechnical Conference, pp 81–86

    Google Scholar 

  • Veihmeyer FJ (1964) Evapotranspiration. McGraw-Hill, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Vu HQ (2003) Uncoupled and coupled solutions of volume change problems in expansive soils. Ph.D. thesis, Department of Civil Engineering, Universityof Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Sask

  • Vu HQ, Fredlund DG (2004) The prediction of one-, two-, and three-dimensional heave in expansive soils. Can Geotech J 41:713–737

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson GW (1990) Soil evaporative fluxes for geotechnical engineering problems. PhD. Dissertation, University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon

  • Wilson G, Fredlund M (2000) The application of knowledgebased surface flux boundary modeling. In: Rahardjo, Toll, Leong (eds) conf on unsaturated soils for Asia

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson G, Fredlund D, Barbour S (1997) The effect of soil suction on evaporative fluxes from soil surfaces. Can Geotech J 34:145–155

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yesiller N, Miller C, Inci G, Yaldo K (2000) Desiccation and cracking behavior of three compacted landfill liner soils. Eng Geol 57:105–121

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang X (2004) Consolidation theories for saturated-unsaturated soils and numerical simulations of residential buildings on shrink-swell soils. Ph. D. Dissertation, Department of Civil Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX

  • Zhang L, Chen Q (2005) Predicting bimodal soil–water characteristic curves. J Geotech Geoenviron 131:666–670

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zotarelli L, Dukes MD, Romero CC, Migliaccio KW, Morgan KT (2010) Step by step calculation of the Penman-Monteith Evapotranspiration (FAO-56 Method). Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the contribution of National Research Council Centre for Sustainable Infrastructure for allowing access to their research facilities.

Funding

The first author received additional financial support from the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research (FGSR) at the University of Regina, and the City of Regina (Henry Baker Scholarship Program).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of British Columbia, Okanagan Campus, Kelowna, BC, V1V 1V7, Canada

    Ramy Saadeldin

  2. City of Regina, Regina, S4P 3C8, Saskatchewan, Canada

    Yafei Hu

  3. Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Regina, 3737 Wascana Pkwy, Regina, SK, S4S 0A2, Canada

    Amr Henni

Authors
  1. Ramy Saadeldin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Yafei Hu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Amr Henni
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ramy Saadeldin.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Saadeldin, R., Hu, Y. & Henni, A. Soil-pipe-atmosphere interaction under field conditions. Bull Eng Geol Environ 80, 4803–4819 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-020-02002-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-020-02002-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation