• 복합신소재구조학회 논문집
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• 제6권4호
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• pp.16-23
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• 2015

The industrialization and urbanization forced to increase the density of pipelines such as water supply, sewers, and gas pipelines. The materials used for the existing pipe lines are mostly composed of concretes and steels, but it is true that the development for more durable and efficient materials has been continued performed to produce long lasting pipe lines. Recently, underground pipes serve in diverse applications such as sewer lines, drain lines, water mains, gas lines, telephone and electrical conduits, culverts, oil lines, etc. In this paper, we present the result of investigation pertaining to the structural behavior of unplasticized polyvinyl chloride (PVC-U) flexible pipes buried underground. In the investigation of structural behavior such as a ring deflection, pipe stiffness, 4-point bending test, experimental and analytical studies are conducted. In addition, pipe stiffness is determined by the parallel plate loading tests and the finite element analysis. The difference between test and analysis is about 8% although there are significant variations in the mechanical properties of the pipe material. In addition, it was found by the 4-point bending test there is no problem in the connection between the pipes by coupler.