Pipe Stiffness

Structural design of a flexible non-pressure pipeline is usually based on analysis of long-

term structural stability of the pipeline affected by variety of external loads and supported by
the surrounding ground. Both behaviour of pipes and level of reinforcing support of
surrounding soil play important role in performance and durability of pipelines.
Thermoplastic materials like polyethylene and polypropylene are viscoelastic – they exhibit
such time-dependant properties as creep and stress relaxation. Under a load a pipe of
viscoelastic materials deflects with time until pipe/soil structure stabilizes. Thanks to stress
relaxation properties, while strain in the pipe is increasing or remains constant, inner
stresses in the pipe decrease.
Unsupported flexible pipe when subjected to point F
loading deforms (see drawing), degree of deflection
being dependent on stiffness of the pipe and loading
duration. Deformation of a pipe ( ) is a function of the
load value and of the material and geometric
stiffness.
Structural design of flexible pipelines according to
AS/NZS 2566.1 is utilizing ring-bending stiffness
value in order to determine pipe deflection or strain in
the pipe wall. The ring-bending stiffness may be
calculated from the following equation:
EI
S= 3
10 6 Point loading of flexible pipe
D
Where S – ring-bending stiffness, N/m·m,
t3
I – second moment of area of pipe wall, m4/m; for plain wall pipe: I = ,
D – diameter at neutral axis of pipe wall, m, 12
t – minimum plain pipe wall thickness, m.
The nominal stiffness may also be determined in a parallel plate test according to AS/NZS
1462.22 where it is defined as the force required to achieve 5% deformation of a specified
length of pipe deformed at a specified rate.
The nominal stiffness (SN) is used to classify Bosspipe:
• SN6 - minimum nominal stiffness of 6000 N/m/m,
• SN8 - minimum nominal stiffness of 8000 N/m/m,
• SN16 - minimum nominal stiffness of 16000 N/m/m.
For plain wall polyethylene pipes, the Nominal stiffness,
SN SDR
nominal stiffness (SN) can be approximated to N/m/m
standard dimension ratio (SDR) as shown in 2 2000 33
the table (source - AS/NZS 5065:2005). 4 4000 26
8 8000 21
16 16000 17

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