Tire Derived Aggregate as a Sustainable Technique to Mitigate Transient Seismic Effect on Buried Concrete Pipes

Abstract

Tier derived aggregate (TDA) is a relatively new sustainable light weight fill that has been developed during the last years. This lightweight fill has been utilized in previous studies to study its impact on the response of buried pipes subjected to fault movement induced due to seismic effect. However, these studies did not focus on the impact of using this light weight fill on the performance of buried pipes subjected to transient seismic shake, although recent publications illustrated the significant effect of transient seismic shake on the response of buried pipes. As a step to fill this gap in knowledge, this research has been conducted to investigate the static and seismic performance of a buried concrete pipe that is supported using TDA. The finite element method has been utilized in the analyses using earthquake records that cover a predominant frequency range of 0.93‒2.90 Hz and a peak ground acceleration (PGA) range of 0.15‒0.50 g. The results have also been compared with the case of a buried concrete pipe supported by dense soil. The results showed that the TDA reduces the maximum bending moments induced in the pipe wall by 27% for static condition and by 22‒39% for seismic conditions. In addition, the TDA also reduces the shear forces developed in the pipe wall by 37% for static condition and by 30‒43% for seismic conditions. The percentage reductions of the shear force and bending moment for the seismic condition depends on the frequency and the PGA of the seismic shake. Based on the obtained results, the TDA can be considered as one of the feasible options to be used as material supporting buried concrete pipes subjected to transient seismic shake.