Underground Piping Stress Analysis Procedure using

Caesar II
Refer my earlier article on buried piping to get preliminary theoretical knowledge on stress analysis
of underground piping. Click here to visit that article. In this article I will explain the steps followed
for modelling and analysis the pipes in Caesar II. Inputs Required: Like all other systems you need
to model the piping system in Caesar II initially following the same conventional method. So you
need the following inputs:

Piping isometrics or GA drawings with dimensions.

Pipe parameters like temperature, pressure, material, diameter, thickness, corrosion
allowance, fluid density etc.
Additionally you need the following soil parameters from civil department (geo-technology
department) for creation of soil model.
Friction Co-efficient, Soil Density, Buried depth to Top of Pipe and Friction Angle
Equipment/Valve GA drawings as per application.

Modelling of the system:

Model the piping system from isometrics/GA drawings using the pipe parameters.

Normally some part of the system will be above ground and some part will be buried. Lets
take an example of a typical system for easy understanding. Refer Fig 1. The stress
system consists of 24 inch CS pipe connected to tank. The parts inside the rectangle are
above ground and remaining parts are underground.

Create a distinct node at all the junction points of underground and above ground piping.

After you complete your model, save it, close and then enter the buried model by clicking
the Underground Pipe modeler button as shown in Fig.2.

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Fig.1: Typical Caesar II system for underground piping analysis

Fig.2: Opening the underground pipe modeler.

Once you click on the underground pipe modeler the following screen (Fig. 3) will open.
You will find all your input node numbers listed there.

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Fig.3: Underground Soil modeler input screen

Now your task is to create the soil model and input data received from civil. On clicking
Soil Models button (Highlighted in Fig.3) you will get the window where you have to enter
the data. You have two options to select as soil model type, Americal Lifelines alliance and
caesar II Basic Model. We will use Caesar II basic model for this article. So select Caesar
II Basic model. The modeler uses the values that you define to compute axial, lateral,
upward, and downward stiffnesses, along with ultimate loads. Each set of soil properties is
identified by a unique soil model number, starting with the number 2. The soil model
number is used in the buried element descriptions to tell CAESAR II in what type of soil
the pipe is buried. You can enter up to 15 different soil model numbers in any one buried
pipe job. Input the parameters as shown in Fig. 4. If you require to add more soil models
simply click on add new soil model. Overburden compaction factor, Yield displacement
factor and thermal expansion co-efficient will automatically be filled by default. You need to
input all other fields. However, defining a value for TEMPERATURE CHANGE is optional.
If entered the thermal strain is used to compute the theoretical virtual anchor length.
Leave undrained sheer strength field blank. After all data has been entered click on ok
button.

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Fig.4: Caesar II Basic Soil Model

Now inform Caesar II about the underground and above ground parts by selecting the
nodes and defining proper soil model number. If you enter 0 as soil model number, the
element is not buried. If you enter 1, then specify the buried soil stiffnesss per length
basis in column 6 through 13. (preferable do not use 1). If you enter a number greater
than 1, the software points to a CAESAR II soil restraint model generated using the
equations outlined in Soil Models of Caesar II. Refer Fig. 5 for example. After all
aboveground and underground parts along with proper soil model number are defined
click on convert button and Caesar II will create the underground model.

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Fig.5: Buried Model Input Spreadsheet in Caesar II

When underground model conversion is over you will get the buried model. By default,
Caesar II appends the name of the job with the letter B. For example, if the original job is
named System1, the software saves the second input file with the name System1B. If the
default name is not appropriate, you can rename the buried job.
In the buried part Caesar II models bi-linear restraints with stiffness values which the
software calculates while conversion into buried model. Refer Fig.6 to check the buried
model of the system shown in Fig.1. These stiffness values depend on the distance
between the nodes.
Now open the file (original file appended by B) and perform static analysis in the same
conventional way and qualify the system from code requirements.

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Fig.6: Buried model of the system shown in Fig.1

Few Important points to keep in mind:

Typical values of friction angle are as follows:

Clay 0 Silt 26-25 Sand 27-45

Typical friction coefficient values are:

Silt 0.4 Sand 0.5 Gravel 0.6 Clay 0.6

The default value of overburden compaction multiplier is 8. However this number can be
reduced depending on the degree of compaction of the backfill. Backfill efficiency can be
approximated using the proctor number, defined in most soils text books. Standard
practice is to multiple the proctor number by 8 and use the result as the compaction
multiplier.

After entering data in soil model when you click ok, the Caesar II software saves the soil
data in a file with the extension SOI.

During the process of creating the buried model, the modeler removes any restraints in
the buried section. Any additional restraints in the buried section can be entered in the
resulting buried model. The buried job, if it exists, is overwritten by the successful
generation of a buried pipe model. It is the buried job that is eventually run to compute
displacements and stresses.

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Caesar II removes the density from the buried part model while converting into buried
model.

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