Denting of pressurised pipelines under localised radial loading

This paper examines quasi-static denting of buried pipelines under lateral loading from excavator machinery fitted with rectangular cross-section bucket teeth. A semi-analytical solution for the load-deflection response under this loading case is presented. Finite-deflection limit analysis is used to describe the plastic behaviour, while standard elastic shell theory is used to describe the elastic response of a pipeline. When calibrated against numerical results, the combination of these two analytical methods enables the entire load deflection history of a pipeline indentation to be described. This method is verified by comparison with finite element results and with experiment. For the range of geometries examined here, the accuracy of the analytical procedure exceeds that of currently available methods.