A modified Mohr-Coulomb model to simulate the behavior of pipelines in unsaturated soils

At the present time, it is very common in practice to utilize Mohr-Coulomb model to simulate the soil behaviour in the application of soil-pipeline interaction problems. However, the traditional Mohr-Coulomb model is unable to predict the realistic loading that can apply on buried pipes during large ground deformation. Especially, the linear elastic-perfectly plastic Mohr-Coulomb model is not capable of simulating the unsaturated soil loading which can result larger than anticipated loading due to suction induced additional normal force between the soil particles. A user defined unsaturated modified Mohr-Coulomb model is developed within a generalized effective stress framework considering suction hardening effects to capture the realistic loading induced by unsaturated soil medium. Firstly, the model has been developed considering microscopic and macroscopic suction hardening mechanisms, and was implemented into a commercial finite element program associated with user subroutine written in FORTAN. Then the model was validated through a series of unsaturated triaxial compression tests conducted on the basis of different sand types having various initial conditions. Finally, the model has been applied to simulate the behavior of pipelines subjected lateral soil loading in unsaturated soils. The results revealed that the modified Mohr-Coulomb model has reasonable predictions when compared to the load-displacement response of pipes obtained from two large scale testing programs. The developed model can be used to predict the increased strength and stiffness associated with soil suction that increases lateral loads on pipelines, and thus has widespread relevance for simulating the pipeline response in unsaturated soils under externally imposed ground movement.