Pipe-soil interaction: Recent and future improvements in practice

© 2015 Taylor & Francis Group, London. Pipe-Soil Interaction (PSI) is a subject still receiving significant attention from industry and academia due to the relatively high uncertainty of some aspects of PSI models, and the sensitivity of pipeline design to that uncertainty. In the last decade, many advances have been made in design approaches and analytical methods in the three broad categories of: pipeline embedment, axial friction and lateral friction models. However, there is still significant room for improvement in: quality of geotechnical input data; geotechnical-structural integration; and verification using the valuable field data now available from operating pipelines. This paper presents the authors’ opinions on the key development opportunities in the PSI process, supported by emerging examples of good practice.